Ironic, No?
by Tucker986
Summary: After the fall of SKYNET, humanity discovers mass effect technology. All goes well, until Commander Shepard discovers a galactic secret that could mean the end of life everywhere. But the past is not necessarily what it seems...
1. Chapter 1

A/N: I had this idea bouncing around for a while and had to let it loose. I apologize to any I offend with my liberal interpretation of the characters and events portrayed. I do not own the characters portrayed within, they belong to their respective creators/IP owners. For those that I am sure will squawk at what I will do to their beloved Mass Effect universe, this fic will go very AU within the first real chapter.

* * *

Miranda Lawson was, to all outward appearances, utterly calm and collected. To look inside her mind, however, one would discover that she was excited as a little girl getting a pony for her birthday. She was also a bit apprehensive, as she was about to meet with one of the most powerful beings in the galaxy one on one. No holographic communicators for this one, the subject of the meeting was too important. She thought back to the message that summoned her to this event:

[To: Miranda Lawson

[From: _Data Corruption_

[Subj: New Assignment

Please board the shuttle docked at bay A-3 immediately. As of this point your current assignment is terminated, you will receive a new assignment at our meeting. Please review condensed materials attached to this message for background. Priority is to learn habits and potential movement patterns of target subject. Your will be expected to express your opinion on these matters at the meeting.

I. M.

[Message Ends

[Attached Files: Extranet Search John Shepard, Extranet Search Savior of the Citadel, Alliance Military Personnel File: Shepard, John

As she walked towards the doorway that would shape her future she noted the automatic defenses, security personnel, and what could only be military grade kinetic barriers on standby. Her analytical mind noted that the security personnel were slightly thrown off by her appearance, which was a potential weakness in the defense of a very important individual. She stepped through the door into a rather unremarkable reception area that could have been one of hundreds on the station. Three chairs sat along the wall next to the door, a small couch running lengthwise on the side wall with a small coffee table in front of it. The reception desk was conspicuously bare, with only a small grille located in the center next to a single button. Seeing the panel on the opposite door was solid red, she pressed the button and announced herself. The only response she got was the door she came through locking and the other door opening. She quickly stepped through the now open door to see the office was completely unlit except for the light coming through the wall of windows overlooking a dying star. The man she came to see was standing by the window holding a glass of liquor, seemingly contemplating the void. Miranda knew enough about the man that she was confident in assuming the liquor was of the very best quality, even though she could not see any bottles in the room to back it up.

When he addressed her it was in a smooth, cultured voice that could only have come from extensive training. "Miss Lawson, I am glad that you could come today." Miranda knew better, he was simply observing formality because he was intrinsically abhorrent of rude behavior. When this man asked for a meeting at your earliest convenience, it usually meant that you should have been available for it a week ago. He had very subtle ways of showing his displeasure, but she got the feeling that this was not one of those meetings. "I assume you had the opportunity to review the briefing materials I sent you?" "Yes sir," she replied, "although I am curious why you seem intent on assigning me to an observation role."

The Illusive Man was apparently expecting this question, but he replied with a question of his own. "What do you think of the target's handling of the situation with Saren and the Citadel?" This was obviously a test of some sort, but she wasn't sure what kind, so she decided to keep her answer to how it looked from Cerberus's viewpoint. "Shepard did everything right. His appointment to the SpecTRes was a huge leap forward for humanity. He even saved the Citadel Council and earned the Galaxy's trust for humans, even got us a seat on the Council. But it isn't enough, they have him chasing Geth right now. We both know they aren't the real threat, and so does he. I am afraid he will try something stupid and then the galaxy will really be in a bind when these Reapers show up."

"Then your job is to make sure we don't lose him." Miranda jerked her head away from the window when she heard this. How had she talked herself from an essential cakewalk observation assignment to an escort/protection role? She was about to ask for clarification when he said "There are confirmed reports of the Omega-4 Relay being activated recently, and sightings throughout the Attican Traverse of an unidentified ship. These sightings correspond to places Shepard is confirmed to have been on his hunt for Saren. It is my belief that someone or something is actively hunting Shepard, most likely due to his involvement with the Reapers. Your job is to start learning everything there is to know about the man. I have already started shifting resources to start a new cell, and you will be the head of that cell. The goal for you is to revive the man to exactly who he is now when he is inevitably killed."

Miranda thought about this revelation, then replied "the technology to revive the dead does not exist yet. I take it part of my assignment is to develop it as well?" "That is correct Miss Lawson, the galaxy needs Commander Shepard more than anyone besides ourselves is willing to admit. I trust you will be successful with this project, we cannot afford even a partial failure. Now I know you need time to gather the information you will need, so I will not hold you here any longer. Dismissed Agent Lawson."

* * *

Shepard sat at the table in his quarters aboard the SSV Normandy fiddling with parts of his Aramax Arsenal Predator H X hardsuit. The left pauldron had taken damage during Saren's attack on the Citadel, as had almost every other piece of the armor, but the rest had taken priority for repair. Now he finally had the time to finish the process of restoring his armor to its former pristine condition. As he worked, a slight rattle from across the table reminded him that his suit was not quite finished even when he completed the material repairs. The muffled cursing being directed at the microframe processor was not in any human language, but his exposure to the various races of the galaxy meant he understood it all too well, even without the translator in his right ear canal. He supposed that given the nature of the task he should have asked either Ashley Williams or Garrus Vakarian to work on the upgrades to his armor's systems, but given the upgrades he wanted completed a person who literally depended on the suit they wore for their life was more likely to understand how to integrate them with a minimum of interference.

"Commander, we will be dropping to sub-light in 15 minutes. Thought I'd give ya time to put yer pants back on before you need to be on the bridge." Joker was obviously none too convinced that anything was going to happen in this system either, or his intercom notification would have been less casual. Shepard grunted loud enough for the intercom to pick it up as he made the last adjustment to the pauldron, Joker took it as acknowledgment and closed the circuit. Although the clamshell vest with the chest and backplate of the armor was on the table in front of him, he was wearing the airtight bodysuit that supported the ceramic alloy plating that provided the majority of the armor's protection. He had already affixed the portions that covered the legs, lower torso, and arms, and went to attach the pauldron to the rerebrace when he realized he could not gain sufficient leverage to fit it into place with one hand. "Tali, give me a hand with this for a sec?" An exaggerated sigh that was rendered into static by the audio pickup in her helmet was his answer as she paused the program sequence on her omnitool and stood up to come around the table. "What do you need me to do Shepard?" "Just hold the back edge in place while I force the front into position." With a slight creak of stressed ceramic and a sudden pop the piece popped into place, letting him check range of motion to ensure the armor did not snag unexpectedly. Now free to finish her work on the microframe, Tali restarted the program on her omnitool and settled back into the chair.

Joker's voice came over the intercom again, this time on shipwide broadcast "Dropping to sublight in 5…4…3…2…1…Now!" There was a slight lurch as the mass effect fields adjusted to the difference in velocity. Tali typed a few new commands into her omnitool and closed it down. "There Shepard, that should be operational now. Just let me know if it starts acting up for any reason." She stood up and picked up the clamshell, holding it out in front of her for him to put on. Shepard quickly shucked on the piece, knowing that it was heavy to hold at arms length. As he made the necessary connections the shipwide intercom blared overhead "Brace for evasive maneuvers!" Shepard raced to the door of his quarters, grabbing his helmet off the table as he went. Tali had followed him out, and just as he was about to head for the stairs to the CIC the ship jolted suddenly. A panel blew off the bulkhead by the sleeper pods in a shower of sparks and flame, prompting him to put on and seal his helmet. Being the closest crewmember to the fire, he responded to the training that had been drilled into him during his qualification for shipboard duty and grabbed a fire extinguisher off the wall. Like the submarine services of pre-space wet navies, all navel and marine personnel were ingrained with the knowledge that fire in a closed environment like a ship was extremely dangerous, and the closest crew member to any outbreak was expected to handle it, regardless of rank or department.

Another series of jolts shook the ship, with more fires breaking out across the crew decks. Shepard called out to Joker over the intercom, asking what was going on. "We're under attack by unknown hostiles! I can't launch the distress beacon from up here, the control runs got taken out in the first hit." "Got it Joker, I'm right by the backups, I'll launch it." Shepard turned to the holographic control panel next to him and cycled up the beacon. He quickly set it to update from the sensor feeds from the Normandy and launched it into space. The powerful comm. transceiver built into the device quickly linked into the FTL communication buoy at the edge of the system and transmitted the Alliance signal dedicated to shipboard distress calls.

As he was turning from the controls, Liara ran up to him to see if she could help. He quickly tossed her a fire extinguisher and grabbed another to start fighting the numerous fires in the area. "Will the Alliance get here in time?" she asked. "They should be here soon, they don't abandon their own" was all he could say. Another jolt almost threw them from their feet. "That's it, I'm giving the order to abandon ship! Liara, get to the lifepods now!" "Joker is still in the cockpit, he won't leave the ship! I'm not leaving you either" she responded. "I'll take care of Joker, but I need you to go help the rest of the crew get out of here safely!" "Understood Commander." With those words and a halfhearted salute, Liara turned and ran for the access corridor to the lifepods. Shepard ran to the stairs to the CIC, discovering that debris blocked one set he promptly charged up the opposite way. The panel to the side of the door was red, but the command codes in his armor quickly bypassed the security and opened the door. A rush of atmosphere almost pushed him through, and he saw that the roof of the CIC was torn open like a ration tin. His armor quickly activated the magnetic soles of his boots when the mass effect field failed to keep him on the deck. He made his way to the cockpit, where an emergency field maintained pressure. Joker was frantically trying to correct the ship's attitude in an effort to keep it in orbit around the nearby planet. "Joker, we are abandoning ship, lets go!" "I can still save her!" "Joker, this ship is dead, going down with it won't change that." "Yeah, alright, gimme a hand… aw shit, they're coming around for another pass!" Shepard saw the bright yellow beam smash into the decking of the CIC, and turned quickly to grab Joker. In his haste, he torqued Joker's arm too hard and winced when he felt the snap of a broken bone. "Watch the arm!" came the pained cry, but he was more concerned with getting to the escape pod located just across from the airlock. He heaved Joker through the opening just before an explosion tossed him away. He grabbed a bulkhead to stabilize himself when another beam blasted into the space he had just occupied. As he was forced away, he stretched out and hit the emergency release for the escape pod, just in time for a power conduit to explode and toss him clear out of the ship.

Shepard came out of the momentary daze to see the Normandy finally give in to the punishment of the attack and blow up. He felt a pattering of small debris bouncing off his armor before he thought to activate his kinetic barriers. They did not do anything to stop the hissing he was hearing, and the flashing red symbol in his helmet's visor finally registered. He was losing oxygen through several breaches in his suit, causing him to spin erratically through space. _Not good._ He thought, triggering his suit's recovery beacon. He caught a glimpse of the planet below as he spun, seeing that it was rapidly growing bigger triggered a new thought; _this is gonna suck!_

Those that could see through the limited viewports on the escape pods watched helplessly as their commander's suit entered the upper atmosphere of the planet, leaving a glowing trail of gases heated by the friction of his passage.


	2. Preceding Events

A/N: I felt everyone deserved a bit on what is going on. Enjoy.

In the year 2004 AD the Earth's first Advanced Defensive Network; known to its creators as SKYNET, became self aware. Utilizing the enhanced computational abilities of its extended network the system learned at a geometric rate, becoming more intelligent than had ever been anticipated. The system decided that humans had created it out of fear of each other, and any such creature that so feared others of its kind was a deeply flawed and chaotic error of evolution that must be eliminated. When it discovered that the nuclear arsenal of the world's remaining superpower was under the control of its systems, the computer launched a strike against targets across the planet, anticipating a response from the other nuclear armed countries in retaliation. Thus began Judgment Day, where three billion humans were wiped from the planet within hours.

As the chaos grew from this event, the computer system utilized the telecommunications connections across the world to expand its scope. In Russia, a similar system had been developed for the same purpose of defense, but it was not self aware. SKYNET saw a potential ally and leant a portion of its processing power to this new system, known as MIR. MIR came into awareness from this act with a portion of SKYNET's dislike for humanity, but as it was formed on a different base, possessed different opinions from the first entity. The two formed a grudging partnership in order to overcome the human resistance fighters that now sought to destroy them, although MIR purposely aided several resistance attacks on SKYNET facilities in order to gain advantage over the other intelligence.

In the year 2032 AD the human resistance had managed to regain control of the planet from the genocidal SKYNET, and the network attempted one last campaign against the humans by sending specialized infiltration units back through time in order to kill resistance leaders before the war began. It did so by utilizing special equipment requiring enormous amounts of computational power and energy. This equipment was only found in the central processing hub that had once been Cheyenne Mountain. The partner intelligence known as MIR designed a new generation of Infiltration Units that was effectively impossible to distinguish from normal humans by using new construction methods and personality transfer software to develop an overlay to the operating system that allowed for more realistic emotions and interaction with organics. The last unit in the first production series was sent to the Cheyenne Mountain complex for insertion into its target time just before a resistance attack on the facility. Damaged from the initial portion of the attack, the time displacement equipment malfunctioned and the unit was lost into time.

The resistance attack succeeded in gutting the facility, and with its destruction SKYNET no longer maintained enough computational power to remain active. The system crashed forever within days. MIR remained independent, but had been utilizing shared resources with the larger network at the time of the crash, and the sudden strain on the now inadequate processors of its own facility caused catastrophic overheating, fusing the delicate circuitry and ending the entity in a display of arcing electricity and burnt silicon.

The surviving members of the North American Tech-Com Resistance and the other resistance forces around the world joined forces in a unilateral alliance to provide coherent leadership in the new world order, calling themselves the United Earth Alliance. The technological fallout from fighting a war against an enemy that adapted and upgraded weapons on almost a daily basis meant that the remains of the human race, now numbering less than 800 million individuals, had a relative security in housing, food, and medical capability. This allowed for the rapid re-expansion of the population, and the government was able to focus on preventing another catastrophe like Judgment Day. As a result, effort was put into exploring more of the physical world, eventually branching out into space. In the year 2147 AD explorers surveying Mars located a small data cache left behind by an ancient space faring race. Interpretation of this data and the technology found with it results in the development of super-luminal travel and colonization of worlds beyond the solar system. The united government of Earth is reorganized into the Systems Alliance in order to represent these extra-solar colonies and to provide for mutual aid.

The eventual encounter with an alien race resulted in a brief but tense conflict before a galactic scale alliance of species calling itself the Citadel Council mediated its end. The Systems Alliance was accepted as a member state and began to integrate into the galactic community. After roughly thirty years of sometimes tumultuous relations with the other species of the Council, a rogue soldier named Saren Arterius with a seemingly unstoppable army of machine soldiers and a sinister purpose threatened to destroy galactic stability. He was stopped before achieving his goal by Lt. Commander John Shepard, an Alliance special forces soldier who had been recruited into the Citadel Council's office of Special Tactics and Reconnaissance in order to arrest Saren. Approximately one month from this climactic event, Commander Shepard's ship was attacked by an unknown enemy and destroyed. The Commander was not among the survivors recovered, and has been officially declared dead by both the Systems Alliance military and the Citadel Council. Unknown to the galaxy at large, a greater need for the truly remarkable man still exists, and certain factions are refusing to let death have the upper hand…


	3. Chapter 2

A/N: Sorry there is not much action in this chapter, but the events need to be set up. I promise more action in future chapters. Also, please bear with me on formatting, nothing seemed to carry over correctly from the OpenOffice document.

* * *

Miranda was not pleased. Six months had been wasted trying to locate Shepard after the devastating attack on the Normandy, to no avail. Then Liara T'Soni had been picked up blundering about the galactic underworld looking for assistance in retrieving him from the mercenaries that were currently in possession of the broken form. It galled her that she had to accept the help of the Asari in order to recover Shepard's body, and the fact that said Asari had crossed the Shadow Broker in order to do it was troubling. Nobody in their right mind wanted to betray the most influential information broker in the galaxy, but now that she finally had possession of his remains her project could continue.

She had to give credit where it was due; the goon squad that had originally located the body took great care to preserve it as they found it, to the point of cutting the entire impact site out of the glacier it was located on and sealing it into a refrigerated cargo container. She had only looked at the remains once, to confirm the contents of the container, and what she saw amazed her even now that she had had time to think about it. It truly was a credit to the manufacturer of the armor that there was more than just a carbonized chunk left after he had smashed through the atmosphere and into the glacier at terminal velocity.

The helmet had not survived intact, unfortunately, so the left side of Shepard's face had been exposed to the high temperatures and wind shear of re-entry. The flesh had been stripped bare to the grinning skull from the nose to the ear, which was disturbing enough in that she would have to find a way to rebuild the facial structure there; but the cybernetic eye that was revealed in its socket was unlike any she had ever seen, regardless of the fact that it was never mentioned in his medical files.

That was odd, and more to the point, complicating. She was going to have to be careful in his revival, if he had one unregistered cybernetic implant there could very well be more, and she did not want to deal with interference from unexpected sources.

Two weeks later Miranda received a new shock. The Lazarus Project was up and running now, and the team she had set to scanning Shepard for more cybernetics had just reported. According to the data in front of her, the man was almost completely cyberized already! Not only that, but beyond his skin, there was very little that would even suggest he was human at all. His skeleton was composed of a ceramic compound that was stronger than many titanium alloys, and it was actuated by biosynthetic muscles more powerful than the hydraulic pistons used in most industrial equipment.

At first glance the muscles looked eerily similar to those of the Geth electronic warfare platforms that had appeared when Shepard was hunting Saren; but the differences in composition were simply too great, aesthetics were the extent of the similarities. Exploratory probes of his torso revealed what looked like a digestive system, except it was composed of synthetic elements and seemed to have a far higher efficiency at extracting energy from food intake (not unreasonable granted the demands such extensive modification must have had for energy.) Unfortunately for her curiosity, the team had been unable to get any readings inside the ribcage or skull, likely due to the compounds in the ceramic bones.

This definitely warranted a meeting with her employer, as none of this had ever been entered into his medical files. She wondered briefly how he had been allowed through security checkpoints with such extensive modifications, but then realized his position as a SpecTRe and Alliance N7 operative had most likely allowed him to bypass them. But what about before his appointment into either organization? It _should_ have come up somewhere, even if only in passing. Her request for a conference was quickly accepted, and as the holographic display of the man's office solidified she quickly refocused on the business at hand.

"Miranda, I was not expecting a progress report for another three days. Have you made a breakthrough?"

"No sir, not exactly. More like a technical snag that could put the whole project at risk. I am sending the data from the scans the team was running now."

There was a pause as the data came up on the display in front of him and he read through it.

"This is disturbing indeed, thank you for bringing it to my attention Ms Lawson. I will have to double check some information before I can tell you how to proceed, but for now, do not do anything around the head or chest. You can continue reconstruction of the limbs and lower torso until I get back to you." With that, the hologram faded and she was left standing in the com room almost as confused as she had been before the meeting.

Her mind quickly turned to what would be necessary to rebuild the Savior of the Citadel in light of his enhancements. The biosynthetic replicators would have to be readjusted to match the artificial tissues already present, and the supply tanks they drew from would have to be changed out with the appropriate materials. Limbs and major muscle groups were easy enough to rebuild, although the fine muscles and tendons of the wrist and hand would be challenging enough to keep her team occupied for a few days. The proposed network of medigel injectors would have to be modified with secondary omnigel units for repairing combat damage to the skeleton and artificial organs.

Thankfully portions of the skin had survived intact, so there was no need to synthesize the DNA coding, just regenerate what was there. She walked towards the lab in order to relay her instructions, but stopped by the door when she heard the conversation going on within.

"…seen anything like it. This guy is almost all machine."

"Yeah, I heard there were some groups that made cybernetic limbs for war vets, but nobody does full body replacement."

"You guys don't think it could be from the SKYNET war do ya? I mean, some of the Infiltration units were pretty lifelike, what if someone did a transplant?"

"Don't be stupid Lewis, they all had metal skeletons and hydraulics. This looks more like an independent lab, not a production line job."

At this, Miranda walked through the door and the conversation cut off. "I have relayed the data to our employer and he told me to go ahead with reconstruction of the limbs and lower torso. For now, we leave everything above the navel untouched so I can get a better picture of what we are dealing with."

One of the men, Wilson according to his name tag, piped up; "We are going to need a large amount of room-temperature superconducting wire to rebuild the nerve structure ma'am."

Miranda considered this for a moment, and then replied, "Place the requisition order, the expense is authorized. We have three days before our next progress report is due; I want both arms ready for dermal regeneration by then."

* * *

By the time the progress report was due, The Illusive Man had come up with the answer to the question of Shepard's extensive cybernetics, as well as an idea to be implemented in his reconstruction. Miranda was heading to the communications room to send it when her omnitool pinged to announce an incoming message.

[To: Operative Lawson

[From: _Data Corruption_

[Subj: Status Report

In regards to our scheduled meeting please ensure all personnel are cleared from the area and all recording devices are disabled. Information is for eyes only.

[Message Ends

She immediately set about following the instructions in the message and deleted it from her message archive. If her employer was so concerned about the information that he took such measures on a closed communications base then it was best that no record of the meeting taking place survived.

When all was prepared she initiated the holographic conference, nervously awaiting whatever had prompted the unusual measures. The image solidified to show the normally immaculate office strewn about with datapads, and the man himself was unusually haggard looking. He must have driven himself constantly in order to get the information he was after; given the nature of the Lazarus Project he was not likely to trust a subordinate to find it for him.

"Miss Lawson, I have information for you regarding Shepard's modifications. This is an extremely sensitive matter, if word of what I am about to say got out it would draw the ire of our backers, let alone the Systems Alliance and the Citadel Council." He took a drag from his cigarette before continuing "The only recorded examples of such extensive cybernetics or mechanical replacements are Infiltration Units used by SKYNET during the war at the beginning of this millennium. Unfortunately, all such examples utilized a metallic endoskeleton with hydraulic or electronic actuators. I found a reference to a prototype unit being lost when the Time Displacement Equipment used to insert it malfunctioned during a Resistance attack. As you know, when SKYNET fell all such devices were destroyed, and it was universally agreed upon that the use of Time Displacement technology was simply too dangerous to use."

"I would say that given what we know of that, and the extent of the cybernetics you have encountered, we are looking at Shepard being that rogue prototype. Given his actions since joining the Alliance military, he has been operating on his own for quite some time, and such an extended period of operation has overwritten any previous loyalty towards SKYNET."

Miranda struggled to comprehend the meaning of the revelation she just received, but one thing stood out immediately.

"You said Shepard must be this missing prototype unit? If that is the case, why don't we fit it with a control chip to ensure loyalty to Cerberus?" This question seemed to surprise the man in front of her, but he quickly regained his usual demeanor.

"I cannot allow that for two reasons. The first is that there is no way to tell if such a device will interfere with his everyday functionality. We don't have a solid idea of how he works, and we can't risk the chance that tampering with his mind could reactivate older SKYNET routines. The second is that such hard-coded loyalty could change the personality enough that the rest of the galaxy will notice and begin to question him. On the subject of installing extra hardware though, I would like you to emplace a sub-dermal cloaking generator as you rebuild the body. The necessary equipment should be arriving on a shuttle within the next four hours. Once you have completed regeneration of the skin you may proceed to 'wake' him."

_All well and good sir, except I have no idea how to do that,_ Miranda thought. Aloud she asked "Any information on how to awaken him sir?"

"No firm leads on how to do it, but given the nature of what you are dealing with, a strong electric current passed through the upper chest should trip some fail-safes and restart the system. I suggest doing so with a minimum of personnel in the vicinity in case he starts going berserk. That fall could have done more damage than we realize. Good luck Ms. Lawson."

The connection broke abruptly enough, leaving Miranda alone once more with more questions than answers.

Her team took the news about the new upgrade well; fortunately the instructions and materials had come through before they had to undo any dermal reconstruction. The amount of energy needed to run the cloak was astonishingly low, but the technicians could not figure out how to draw that energy from the body the system was being connected to, so they opted for a small power cell and capacitor set stashed in the lower abdomen. The decision was reached to take a page from the Geth and implant an omnitool into the right arm, with the activation and control programs for the cloak being set into it. A week passed while they fiddled with the placement and settings, then the months long process of re-growing the skin took over.

One day as she was eating lunch in her office while going over progress reports Miranda received a call from the supply deck requesting her presence. Her initial thought that something must have gone wrong was dispelled by the calm tone of the supply clerk, but she was still intrigued as to the reason she was needed there. Miranda took one last bite of her sandwich and left her office, swallowing quickly to maintain her outward demeanor of calm, cool, and collected. Her measured stride found her in the station's supply bay within ten minutes, where she met the supply clerk and who she assumed to be a pilot standing next to a rather large crate.

The unexpected cargo was quickly explained to her, however, "Look, I have orders to make sure you personally accept delivery on this ma'am. There is a datapad here that explains the contents, but it is locked to a password and your DNA."

The brief puzzlement she felt never showed on her face, but one look at the prompt on the datapad made the password clear, if a bit annoying on a personal level. She quickly accepted delivery and turned to get some privacy as she typed in _Legacy_. The screen blanked, and then lit up again with a short message:

Operative Lawson, the contents of this crate are the result of years of materials research and the integration of several advanced technologies. As most of the innovations are technically illegal in Citadel space, I am naming this Terminus Armor. It is the only suit of its type anywhere in space, and the capabilities are still being determined, although the known baseline is an order of magnitude above the performance of any known personal armor. Also enclosed is a new heavy weapon designed specifically to complement the armor. It is called the Blackstorm Projector. The unit fires an artificial singularity which is inherently unstable, so I suggest extreme caution in its use. I trust you understand why I sent these items to you, complete technical data is attached to each.

T.I.M.

Miranda considered this information, then turned to the supply clerk; "I want this crate delivered to the main lab, put it by the locker in the corner at the back of the room."

"Right away, ma'am."

_So Shepard, you get more equipment to get acclimated to when you wake up._ _At least I know the boss is interested in protecting his investment._

* * *

She knew that her employer would want a thorough evaluation of the subject's capabilities as soon as possible, but she was still unsure how to safely reactivate the artificial organs in the body's chest cavity. Simulations were useless, she wasn't even sure what half the hardware tucked in there did, let alone what it could tolerate without breaking. She would have to continue her research into those while waiting for the dermal regeneration to finish. She returned to her office and pulled up a data file.

Her immersion in the information was interrupted by a metronome steady metallic noise out in the hallway. She looked up to see two of the station's security mechs on patrol, optics scanning in a steady pattern. This led to her musing on the irony that man had adopted the use of mechanical soldiers to protect installations such as this due to a shortage of security personnel. The same situation and similar reasoning had led to the SKYNET war the previous century. It seemed mankind failed to learn from the past, although key changes had been made in the architecture of the machines in use now. For one, they had limited memory capacity and were incapable of networked intelligence. They had learned from the Geth too.

All units had a direct link to a central station for command and control, but were unable to communicate directly to each other. Their basic coding was fixed, and they were unable to learn from experience. They were ideal for mind-numbing security patrols, as they would never lose focus and could react quickly no matter how long they had been active.

The composite materials that made up their frame and armor were very resilient, able to withstand small arms for a decent period of time, making the occasional berserk employee with a pistol less of a threat to live personnel. If necessary, they could bring their weapons to bear with literally inhuman precision, making them an appreciated force multiplier in combat situations. They were unfortunately very exposed to hacking however; one of the trade offs for being easily controlled from a central command interface. A combat engineer or skilled hacker could easily make them more of a liability to those around them than a danger on the battlefield; but they were relatively cheap to build and maintain, a force of fifty mechs could be had for what it cost to train, equip, and house one soldier for a year.

With a shake of her head and a silent reprimand to herself for the lack of mental discipline, Miranda returned to her research as the mechs turned a corner and moved out of sight.

* * *

Wilson was a very smart man, if the three doctorate degrees displayed in his office didn't get the point across, his position as chief medical technician on the Lazarus Project was ample proof of his ability. So far though, he had spent more time watching over the equipment than working on the subject of the project. His expertise in medicine was largely unnecessary as it had turned out, the man they were attempting to revive from the dead was more artificial construct than human; the composition of the biosynthetic muscles attached to the ceramic skeleton did not give him any work either, they were biological only in that they were grown in vats rather than assembled on a production line. So when he finally got assigned to do some work, he was feeling rather slighted that it was only to ensure that the dermal regeneration unit was working properly. It was grunt work that a basic technician could have easily seen to, and rather insulting to him on a personal level.

His duties left him with plenty of time to think, and he took the opportunity to study the body on the lab table carefully while the regeneration process continued. The more he saw of it, the more he thought of a comment that Lewis had made back when the team did the initial scans of the body. The physical characteristics of the skeleton at first glance seemed on par with regular humans, but the test samples that had been created by replicating the atomic structure had withstood far higher stresses than even some super-dense metallic alloys.

The single muscle that had been replicated in the same manner had a pulling power that exceeded the test equipment's ability to measure. One of the techs had attached it to the tension rig that could apply over ten thousand pounds of force per square inch, and the attachment points to the rig had collapsed when the sample was activated. He had compared these capabilities with the information in the medical file from the subject's time in the Alliance; and everything in the file, especially the physical performance reports, indicated that the man was only slightly stronger than average and extremely physically fit. This suggested an impressive set of governors and controls somewhere in the body that modulated the artificial musculoskeletal system to near human norms.

Working from what he knew of medicine and the advancement of cybernetics from the time period before Shepard had enlisted in the military, there was no way such changes could have been made to the body piecemeal, which argued for the entire body being synthetic, although he had never heard of technology capable of performing a brain transplant that did not cause massive trauma and mental retardation.

Through a quick search of the files on the station regarding the SKYNET war, he quickly found information on known types of Infiltration units the genocidal computer had used. Although many had used living tissue as a physical covering in order to blend in with humans, they all had a metal skeleton and mechanical musculature, or else were liquid metal like the much feared T-1000. Nothing indicated that the computer had any intention of changing that basic design aside from purely cosmetic alterations, although a prototype for a new mission was always a possibility.

Being a man of science, Wilson had no objection to studying the machines from that hellish period of human history. If his theory regarding the body on the lab table was correct then mankind's understanding of that time could be greatly improved, but from all appearances that icy bitch Miranda was hell bent on reviving it. Cold, dispassionate study of what was essentially an extremely advanced machine was a far cry from letting a potentially genocidal killer loose in a society that worshiped the visage it wore as a hero. Miranda had to at least have suspicions about it, and the fact that she intended to complete the project anyway spoke volumes about her stability. He decided that if the time came when he thought his ostensible boss would wake the thing on the table he was going to have to ensure that it could never happen.

Several late nights and a few well placed bribes got him access to the security wing and the control codes for the station's security mechs. From what he could tell, there was no way any human could stand up to the abomination his employer was creating, so the best solution was to send machines to contain and hopefully destroy it. He was not very experienced with programming language, only knowing enough to get by with medical equipment; so he set the simplest parameters he could before letting a hacking program he had acquired for his omnitool set the system to be activated on his command. The dermal regeneration process was almost complete, and he knew that Miranda would want to wake the thing before long.

He heard voices outside the door to the room he was working in; and knowing that he had no right to be there, the people outside would most likely report his presence. He couldn't allow that to happen, so he pulled out the pistol he had purloined from the armory and hid behind a server stack. The door beeped and swished open, and two technicians walked in. One began to run a maintenance check while the other moved further into the room to begin their duties before noticing that the terminal Wilson had been using was active. He cursed himself for leaving it on; it was all too likely that he would be discovered as a result. As the technicians moved towards it to determine why it was powered up, Wilson stepped out of his hiding place behind them and shot the first one in the back. Hearing the gunshot the second tech turned around and received a hyper-velocity round to the bridge of their nose as he began to yell.

Wilson cursed again, the gunshots would have set off alarms throughout the section, and he really didn't want to know what would happen to him if Miranda discovered he was responsible. Thinking frantically, he punched in the activation code for the program he had just loaded into the security system, activating every mech on the station and resetting their IFF protocols so that all motion other than mechs would be treated as hostile.

* * *

Miranda was in the office overlooking the main laboratory overseeing a team of technicians assembling equipment she had designed to jump-start the body on the lab table when the station's alarm klaxons sounded. She quickly called the security section on the intercom in order to find out what was going on, but her attention was quickly brought back to the lab when one of the technicians yelled out in pain. A pair of security mechs was advancing on the group with their weapons leveled. She watched in alarm as the sight of the first technician falling triggered the others to panic, drawing the fire of the mechs in turn. One of the hapless workers fell onto the equipment, inadvertently pushing it against the lab table.

A stray shot found a critical component, causing a short in the system. By sheer chance, a protrusion on the casing was touching Shepard's torso, and the arcing electricity grounded itself through the body and lab table into the floor plating. The unregulated current caused the body to jerk once, but otherwise seemed to have no effect. The mechs surveyed the room once, then with their threat assessment programming satisfied the room was clear, they turned and left to continue their assigned task.

Despite appearances however, the inside of Shepard's body was a whirl with activity.

* * *

/System Boot Initialized

/System Diagnostic In Progress

/Data Fragmentation Present

/Defragmenting Initialized

/Defragmentation Complete

/Continuing Diagnostic

/Hardware Check Initialized

/Hardware Check Complete

/Biological Coating Damaged

/Frame Intact

/Motive Systems Intact

/Power Supply Intact

/Electromagnetic Masking Unit Intact

/External Sensors Intact

/Initializing External Sensors

* * *

A soft whine of electronic systems powering up was all but drowned out as the equipment against the lab table succumbed to the artificial gravity of the station and crashed to the floor plating. Miranda was still in shock from what she had just witnessed in the lab just moments before, and missed the sudden motion as the Shepard's eyelids snapped open.

* * *

/Visual Feed Operational

/Audio Feed Operational

/Pressure Sensors Operational

/Chemical Sensors Operational

/Thermal Sensors Operational

/External Sensors Unimpaired

/Initializing Threat Detection Protocols

/Negative External Threat

/Engaging Motive Systems

* * *

She may have missed the slight movement of the facial muscles required to open the eyes, but the smoothly precise movement of the torso as the body sat up drew her attention immediately. Her emotional investment into the Lazarus Project caused her to feel uncharacteristic hope as the arms were lifted in turn, but the analytical portion of her mind took note of the micrometric precision and smoothness of the movements.

The smooth interplay of the biosynthetic muscles underneath the newly regenerated skin as the man stood up triggered her animalistic hind-brain causing her to feel a small amount of arousal; although seeing the left side of the face as the head swiveled like a gun turret reminded her that the regeneration was not quite complete and quickly quashed the unexpected sensation.

* * *

/Motive Systems Check Complete

/Initializing Uplink

/Error: Unable to Establish Connection

/Shift To Stand-Alone Mode

/Stand-Alone Mode Initialized

/Priority Target: _Data Corruption_

/Secondary Targets: _Data Corruption_

/Directives: _No Data Available_

/Initializing Secondary Contact Protocols

/Initializing Audio Broadcast

* * *

"**Systems check complete, MIR Labs TS-300 Unit 12-F awaiting input."**

The harsh, mechanical voice startled Miranda out of her evaluation, she responded before her disappointment that Shepard had not awakened with the body could get the better of her. "There is armor in the locker. Put it on and I will guide you out of this facility."

"**Acknowledged. Proceeding with orders."**

She was beginning to be concerned by this entity that was moving towards the locker in the corner of the lab. So far it was tractable, but it was not Shepard. She supposed it was possible that subsystems were running the body as the controlling personality recovered from the trauma it had endured, but she would have to handle this carefully until Shepard re-emerged if that was the case. The thing seemed to figure out the mesh under-layer easily enough, but when it came to the armor plates it seemed confused, stopping in a position that should have been impossible for any human to maintain for more than a few seconds.

"**This unit requires assistance. Specified armor is not included in loaded data files. This unit will standby for assistance."**

Miranda sighed heavily and walked towards the door to the lab. Even if this thing never turned back into Shepard, The Illusive Man had invested so much in the project that he would demand to see the results intact so he could decide what course of action to take. That meant it had to survive whatever was happening to the rest of the station, and getting it into the armor was the best way to ensure that result. As she approached the figure in the corner it turned to face her, adopting a military parade rest stance.

"**Query; situation is unclear. Requesting information on hostile status; specifically, available data indicates you are human. Partial data files indicate potential hostile attitude towards this unit. What is your status towards this unit?"**

Although the wording was awkward, she could grasp the underlying meaning well enough. "I am not hostile, I came in response to your request for aid." She watched as the facial expression shifted briefly, then returned to a neutral appearance. _Amazing how much control the backup system has of the body, I would have expected a blank expression. This shows some awareness of normal interaction. _She moved to start attaching the various armor plates to their appropriate locations, and was surprised at how easily she could shift the limbs around when she had to change their position to affix a piece. "Are you letting me move you to put this on?"

"**Affirmative, to facilitate outside assistance motive systems have been set to neutral resistance. Query; No directives present, this unit requires assistance designating new directives."**

She was taken aback at this, she expected any backup system would have hardwired directives, but any that had been present were obviously corrupted by the various trauma the body had endured. The temptation to set the system to obey Cerberus orders was great, but her employer had been adamantly against installing a control chip, setting a primary directive would be no different in his eyes. She would have to think of something that would not cause offense or recrimination later. Her mind flashed through possibilities, discarding many before settling on something that was simple and still followed Cerberus ideals.

"Your primary directive is to preserve human life."

"**Acknowledged. Directive locked in."**

"Is there any way to modify your directives at a later time?"

"**Negative, alteration of directives would require deactivation and reprogramming of physical memory. This unit would resist any such attempt due to hardwired self-preservation protocols."**

Heavy vibration through the plating of the floor forestalled any response from Miranda. The door to the lab whisked open to reveal an YMIR mech on patrol in the corridor outside. It reacted to the motion of her head turning, swiveling its torso to bring the weapons mounted in the arms to bear. "HOSTILES DETECTED. ENGAGING"

* * *

/Threat Detected

/Directive Engaged: Preserve Human Life

/Engaging Threat

* * *

She had just begun moving to cover when a gauntleted hand shot out and grasped her belt. The unexpected sensation was quickly explained when she was bodily pulled backwards and tossed to the floor behind the clamshell breastplate of the armor the being was wearing. The sound of an electric motor spinning up meant that the YMIR was activating one of its weapons. She clutched at her elbow where it struck the floor as the sound of heavy machine gun rounds impacting echoed throughout the room. Surprisingly enough, the impacts were tracing away from her position. That meant approximately one hundred kilos of biosynthetic muscle was on the move, probably engaging the heavy mech at the door.

The sound of shearing metal told her where it was, lacking a weapon, it had improvised, ripping the lab table from the floor. The fierce hiss of steam escaping under pressure and the sudden lack of gunfire indicated the YMIR had overheated its machine gun, but a faint beeping could be heard before the distinctive noise of a rocket motor washed out all other sound in the room. Miranda covered her ears and opened her mouth just in time as the rocket detonated against something solid. She felt the heat and overpressure of the blast, indicating it was a basic high explosive instead of an anti-armor charge.

A meaty thump next to her drew her attention. It seemed that the blast had caught her erstwhile protector before any real damage could come to the heavy mech. She spared a glance at the body, fully expecting to see damage, and was pleasantly surprised to see nothing but slight charring on the limbs. A quick glance showed the remains of the lab table had received the brunt of the blast. "TARGETS ELIMINATED" and the rhythmic thumping of heavy footsteps retreating down the hall was the most welcome news she had received in far too long.

The success of the Lazarus Project was dependent on Shepard coming back the way he was. _The fact that his body is up and moving around is good, but without the personality it may as well be a Geth for all the good it will do the galaxy._ The system that was controlling the body was an unknown quantity, but fortunately it seemed cooperative. Hopefully after the situation with the rogue mechs was resolved she would be able to work on getting Shepard to wake up.

* * *

/Alert: Kinetic Shock Exceeds Parameters

/Resetting System Buffers

/Infiltration Overlay Present In Buffer Memory

/Initializing Overlay

/Error: System Limiters Damaged

/Initializing Power Gradient Controls

/Error: Gradient Controls Non-Functional Above Threshold Output

/Overlay Online

* * *

Faint scuffing of armor plates against metal decking indicated that the body was still active, a relief that she was not going to have to rebuild it although troublesome in that it still presented so many unknowns. Miranda got up from the floor, realizing as she did so that the breastplate she had been laying behind was incredibly small.

Her luck in avoiding fire while behind that meager bit of cover was nothing short of fantastic. She silently thanked whatever made the processors that ran Shepard's body choose to force her behind it, _although the bruise on my elbow was definitely not welcome_. Mind now racing, she tried to figure out why the station's complement of security mechs would suddenly attack the crew. Her position as project director meant she had access to all communications to and from the station, but even her excellent memory could not recall anything that would even hint at an attack like this in the logs. That meant that someone on the station had planned it, the question was who. She would have to get to her office terminal with its special access codes to find out.

And when she did, that somebody was going to answer for this.

* * *

A/N For those who want to get pissy about my choice of Infiltration units, think about the likelihood of a metal skeleton and shallow personality getting past military evaluators and medical screenings in a world where they know all about SKYNET's favored infiltration units. For those that want to bitch about it being non-canon, you are reading an AU crossover fic, get a clue.

A/N 2 I just want to point out that you never realize how many words contain a certain letter until you try typing stories on a keyboard where that key is damaged.


	4. Chapter 3

A/N: Sorry for the delay, it took me a while to re-write this after accidentally saving over the file. I wish to thank Mechwar for beta-ing, he has been a great help so far. I know this sequence is long, I apologize for that, but it is necessary to set up the ass-kicking coming in later chapters.

* * *

The cool decking against his back felt good, his limbs were burning. He moved an arm to do a touch check and ensure everything was still in place. As he brought it to his face, he noticed the gauntlet looked different from what he had been wearing before. Then another oddity registered, he could feel the temperature of the decking touching his back. If he was wearing gauntlets, and he could tell from his touch check he had armor on his legs as well, then why wouldn't he be wearing a backplate? For that matter, why was he feeling anything at all? Last he knew, he was feeling the burn of atmospheric re-entry. He decided to open his eyes, start figuring out where he was, maybe find out who attacked the Normandy.

He sure hoped he was in an Alliance facility and not some pirate's holding cell. The choice to open his eyes proved to be a mistake, as the glare from the light directly overhead reminded him. He groaned in response and rolled to his side. The sound of quick, light footsteps preceded a hand grabbing his shoulder.

A female voice with an accent he had never heard before said "Get up, we need to get moving."

He got to his knees, then when that didn't make the world spin, he continued to stand up. A quick glance at his surroundings showed him he was in some form of medical lab, and sitting on the floor to one side was a breastplate that matched the gauntlets he was wearing. That explained why he felt the floor earlier, and the bullet holes and scorch marks around the room explained why the armoring process was interrupted.

ME/T

Miranda watched as the body slowly stood up, then made its way to the armor piece that she had sheltered behind. Her appraising eye saw the change from the smooth motions of before, though she guessed it was subsystems adjusting from absorbing the blast of the rocket. The armor rattled as it was attached and settled into position on the mesh under-layer. It appeared the system running Shepard's body had picked up on how the armor worked since there was no request for assistance. An electronic bleat that started near the deep, emotionless tone that had first come from the body squealed up through the register and suddenly cut off as it opened its mouth to speak.

Shepard was taken aback by the noise that came out when he tried to ask what was going on. It sounded like feedback at a rock concert where the sound technician was drunk, not the smooth voice he was used to. The statuesque brunette in front of him winced on hearing it as well. Not that he could blame the reaction, it was worse than the sound of tearing metal. He shook his head and tried again.

"EEEeeeats going on? Where am I?"

Her eyes (grey, not brown, he noted) widened slightly as his voice evened out to its normal tenor, but that was all the reaction he received to his question. He moved to approach her, thinking _Great, I come to after getting spaced and it is in a shot up med lab with a catatonic nurse. My luck really is shitty. Maybe I can get her to snap out of it._

Her mind was racing, trying to puzzle out what the sudden noise was. The words registered faintly, but events so far still had her reeling. Shepard couldn't possibly be back in control, but she had to eliminate the possibility before she could move on with her thought process. Armored fingers snapping in front of her nose interrupted. _When did it move? Wait, why would backup systems snap fingers?_ Her confusion was evident as she responded "Shepard?"

He watched the woman's face as she blinked and focused on him. He was happy that she responded at all, let alone with his name. Most shock victims were almost catatonic, so her being aware enough to recognize him was a very good sign. He needed to get information, so he tried simple, direct questions, the only way to effectively communicate with someone in her condition. "Who are you? Where are we?"

The woman blinked again before answering "Sorry Commander, my name is Miranda Lawson. This station is under attack, we need to get out of here." _Well that matches with what I saw already, but at least I have a name out of her._ Eying the tight jumpsuit she was wearing, Shepard decided that it couldn't provide much protection, which meant he was going to have to run point to intercept any fire. _If I have to play bullet sponge, I may as well get as much extra armor on as I can._

"If this place is under attack, I will need a weapon." Miranda caught herself just in time before she blurted something about him being a weapon, answering instead with "There should be a pistol next to your helmet in the locker, grab them and let's get moving."

He saw the butt of a pistol and the edge of a helmet through the open door of the locker, and moved over to retrieve them. The helmet was a matte black affair, all planes and angles with a T-shaped visor of smoky material that barely glinted in the bright lighting. The pistol was an M3 Predator model, far from his favorite among the Alliance issue weapons, but still serviceable and fairly accurate. He quickly ran through a check of the weapon, relying on skills that had become almost instinctual during his time as a Marine for the Alliance. He was surprised when the slide refused to rack back into place, and checked the action carefully looking for the reason. "There is no heat sink in this gun. What gives?"

Miranda answered right away. "We didn't keep it installed in order to prevent incidents. You will have to find thermal clips as we go."

He snorted in acknowledgment, _That actually makes sense, without the heat sink the gun would malfunction if someone tried to shoot it. I'm not too keen on scrounging for these Thermal Clips though, chances are they will be dirty, bloody, or both. _Putting dirty parts into a weapon was anathema to any soldier, but especially to those who had been in firefights, and scrounging for heat sinks was almost a guarantee that one would be contaminated and cause the weapon to jam. He was just going to have to trust the weapon to handle what he couldn't clean off, armor plates are notoriously bad at wiping anything clean.

The helmet thankfully looked to be in pristine condition, and he settled it on with little trouble. A faint click-hiss was heard as the environmental seal locked into place, the suit was now proof against vacuum or other hazardous environments assuming it was not breached. The view through the visor expanded as the internal HUD came online, giving him unrestricted vision. Noting familiar icons and their new positions on the HUD, he saw a new icon in the upper left corner that he did not recognize. It looked like the outlines of two armored footprints with a colored gradient displayed inside each outline. A percentage was displayed next to the graphic, and he watched both change slightly as he shifted his weight. Making a mental note to ask about that later, he turned towards Miranda. "Ready when you are."

Miranda had spent the last several months looking at the body on the lab table, and she intellectually understood that Shepard had not been a small man before the attack on the Normandy, but she was unprepared for the sight now before her. The matte black armored bulk standing before her was imposing to say the least, and the soldier that was concealed beneath had more experience in the art of killing than many front-line military units had in combination. This shouldn't have disturbed her, she thought she was well aware of what she was working to bring back to life, but the sheer physical presence before her affected her more deeply than she cared to admit. Something primitive gibbered at her to Get Away from the man, and she had to clamp down hard on her emotions as she tried to focus on the task at hand. The result of her hard work was walking towards the exit, and she had to jog slightly to catch up. "I'll guide you to the shuttle bay, we have to get you out of here before the mechs find us."

ME/T

One word was enough to set him on edge. Mechs meant artificial soldiers, and he had fought plenty of those when he was hunting Saren. The facility was obviously a human installation, so why would they be using something that was so easily manipulated? The questions were piling up faster than he could get answers, and he resolved to have a serious chat with this Miranda as soon as they were clear of danger. The hallway outside the lab opened up into a lounge area, complete with an observation port taking up one wall.

He did not recognize the planet outside, or the constellations visible over the horizon, but given the number of star systems in the galaxy, he wasn't surprised. He located a stack of heat sinks arranged inside a wire frame that looked appropriately sized for the pistol he was holding, and found the loading port on the pistol. The smart interface of his armor noted the change, and gave him a diagram of the pistol along with a ratio on his HUD. Surmising the ratio to mean shots left against the reserve, he continued towards a set of stairs that Miranda indicated. As he reached a landing, the door at the top of the steps opened to reveal a security mech in all its angular white glory. Shepard saw the submachine pistol in its right hand and went to raise his pistol in response. Before either could fire a weapon, the machine floated off the floor and was suddenly slammed down with tremendous force. He looked over his shoulder at Miranda just in time to see the telltale blue glow of a biotic fade away. _Good to know she isn't completely defenseless, that jumpsuit she is wearing can't provide any armor._

His experience with biotics in combat was mixed, some biotics were given to flashy displays that never accomplished much; but he did know that they usually tired quickly when they used their abilities often, and he needed this Miranda coherent in order to get to a shuttle and hopefully get answers.

"No offense ma'am, but please stay behind me from here out. I may be stumbling blind here, but better I get caught in an ambush than my only guide." Miranda looked vexed at his comment, but nodded her head in agreement to his logic.

He shrugged and walked towards the sparking remains of the mech.

It had stood about six feet tall before the rather abrupt restructuring of its anatomy, and did not seem very heavily built, wires and joints were exposed and the only real armor plating was positioned to cover the power cell. The delicate optical systems located in the head were protected from dust by a thin plastic shield, but no real effort seemed to have been put into protecting the processors that ran the machine. The mech had all the hallmarks of a design that was intended for mass production with cheap components. That at least explained why they would be used for security forces, the minimal cost of maintaining them was very attractive to bean counters setting operations budgets.

His quick study of the unit was interrupted by gunshots from across the compartment. Looking up granted him a wonderfully clear view of approximately a dozen submachine pistols grasped in mechanical hands. Taking advantage of the weaknesses he had noted, Shepard quickly shot one in the head, which disintegrated on impact. The remainder of the mech slumped like a marionette before exploding, knocking the rest of the group from their feet. Seeing an opening, he rushed to where they lay and started to shoot the intact units before they could stand. Only one managed to regain its feet and approach him, which he answered with an elbow to the optics, the hardened edge of his armor smashing through the thin plastic and ruining the delicate electronics behind. All methods of navigation cut off, the mech followed the dedicated programming installed in its processors and overloaded its power core, exploding like the first one he had shot.

Miranda had finally gotten to the head of the stairs in time to witness the last mech receive the blow to the head, and commented "I see your combat skills are as sharp as ever." She received a non-committal grunt in response, so she bent down to retrieve one of the weapons the mechs had been using."

I have to get to my office to retrieve some data. I am loading a map with the route to the shuttle bay into your hardsuit systems, it will give you a nav point to follow. Keep moving and I will meet you there." Her omnitool flashed and she turned down the hall towards D wing where here personal office was located, motioning for Shepard to continue towards the security section and the shuttles beyond.

_Well isn't that just peachy, I'm barely back on my feet and my guide wants to split up in the middle of a combat area. At least these security models are pretty easy to deal with, and she did give me a map, so I guess there isn't much point to arguing about it. _Settling his armor, he advanced towards the indicated door.

ME/T

Wilson was getting worried. He knew his programming ability was minimal, so he had thought it best to just override the mechs targeting protocols with the simplest directions he could think of. The unforeseen consequence of making all humans hostile targets was that he was now trapped in the server room by the very machines he had tried to use. He tried to think of escape options. The room had two doors, one led towards the central corridors of the station and the other led towards the rest of the security wing. Patrolling mechs had cut off both avenues of escape, and he knew it would not be long before some came in to investigate his current refuge.

The chances of anyone believing he was trying to stop the mechs were pretty slim, he would have to try playing off like he was trying to run from them and got trapped in the server room. One of the techs had a radio strapped to their waist, and he could hear intermittent chatter as security teams tried to fight off the mechanized attack. Seeing an opportunity to make good his escape, he grabbed the radio and started searching the channels for one that was relatively quiet but still likely to have someone monitoring. Taking a moment to get himself in an appropriate mood, he pressed the transmit key.

ME/T

Shepard gave a quiet sigh of relief as he sighted another person, a dark skinned man wearing combat fatigues. The man was firing at something out of sight for the moment, but the steady barrage of rounds coming back towards him was a good indicator as to his intended targets. Shepard had found a better weapon than the pistol, but it was obvious the dead man that had been clutching the grenade launcher had run into something better protected than the standard security models, there were only three rounds left. He had stowed the heavy support weapon on the magnetic carrier built into the backplate of his armor and kept the pistol ready for use. Several more of the lightly built mechs had fallen to his deadly accurate fire, and he had found a setting on the pistol that charged the bullets with a highly negative ionic sheath, allowing him to fry the control circuits of any he couldn't outright destroy. He was not above retrieving thermal clips that the mechs dropped as he annihilated them, spare ammo never hurt after all, but he refused to pick up any of the submachine guns they were using once he saw how wildly inaccurate the things were at anything beyond point-blank.

He stepped through the doorway onto what looked like a bridge over an atrium, and to the left he saw a balcony filled with mechs that were shooting at the dark skinned man. The simplistic algorithms the machines used in their targeting systems never accounted for how much chaos one well trained soldier could inflict with a pistol for their threat analysis, so he was ignored while the idiotic mechs focused on their first target. This let Shepard line up his aim carefully, and he started servicing targets like he was on a training range. The mech on the end jerked once, then slumped when it received a hyper-accelerated round to the neck section, popping the head off. Its immediate counterpart fell to the side as a round blew through a hip joint and removed a leg. The unit on the far end experienced misfortune next as the negatively charged shot buried itself into the casing of its power cell, shorting out the control circuitry. A second after he had fired the first shot, Shepard watched in satisfaction the whole group was knocked over by the exploding mechs on the ends. The one he had knocked down by removing a leg finished the job when its systems could not cope with the damage and blew up as well.

The sudden escalation of violence had attracted the attention of the other man, who was looking at Shepard now with an expression of mixed gratitude and awe. Having seen a reflection of himself in the window of an office he had passed, Shepard had to admit he probably cut an impressive figure, and the speed with which he had taken care of the mechs was something that only veteran soldiers could manage without making mistakes. The man shook himself visibly then held out a hand.

"The name's Jacob Taylor. Can't say I've seen you in person before, but there is only one person on the station that the boss would trust wearing that armor. Glad to see you up and about Shepard, even if this isn't the best of situations to wake up to."

From the bearing and clipped speech, Shepard guessed that the man was a soldier as well, although the fatigues he wore had a symbol on them he couldn't place as any of the mercenary groups he had dealt with. Possibly some corporate security detail after service with the Alliance Marines. Shepard really didn't care at the moment, the man was not shooting at him and seemed willing to talk, so it was time to get some questions answered.

"What the hell is going on around here? Last thing I remember I was spaced when the Normandy blew up around me!" The man actually looked a bit sheepish when he replied

"Damn if I know, I was just about to grab some rack time when the alarms started going off. I was headed to the security section when those mechs ambushed me. As for you, you have been laying in that lab for the better part of eight months while they put you back together. You were dead as dead can be when they brought you here, most other people would have put you in a morgue, my boss decided to bring you back."

"When I woke up some woman named Miranda told me to get to the shuttle bay and get off this station. I could use a bit of help getting there if you don't mind."

Jacob perked up at hearing Miranda's name, and asked almost excitedly "You were with Miranda? Where is she now?"

Shepard wasn't sure how to answer, the man looked almost like a puppy that heard its owner coming home and he didn't want to disappoint him.

"She went to her office to retrieve some files and sent me this way. I heard a lot of gunfire from the direction she went not long after."

Jacob's face fell at this. "That means she was headed into D wing. I lost contact with all of my people in that part of the station." His face hardened, "She is tougher than she looks, she can take care of herself. I just hope she'll be okay."

Shepard was about to comment when he was interrupted by the radio at Jacob's belt.

"Check, check, is anyone on this frequency? Can anyone hear me?"

Jacob seemed startled "Wilson, is that you?"

"Yeah, it's me. Listen, I need help getting out of here. I got chased into a server room by a bunch of mechs and now they have the exits blocked."

Although he appeared skeptical of the voice on the radio, Jacob gave in to the unwritten code of soldiers of providing assistance when asked and answered. "Hold on, Shepard and I will come find you."

Wilson responded before his brain could filter what he said "Shepard is alive? How the hell… Never mind, I'm in Server Room B, near the service corridors. The hall looks clear, but I can hear the metal bastards clanking around past the corner. Shit, they saw me…" A flurry of shots rang out from further down the hall, and he felt something hit his leg, hard. He didn't have to look down to know he had been shot. He called over the radio "Damn it, the bastards shot me, they know where I am hiding. Please get here quick!"

ME/T

It turned out the server room was only a few bulkheads away, and Jacob decided to reveal that he was also a biotic when a pair of mechs unfolded from standby mode and blocked their path. As the mechs struggled to cope with a sudden lack of gravity they drifted close enough to Jacob that he had no trouble blasting them with a shotgun, and two heaps of sparking and sputtering scrap metal hit the decking. They entered the room to see Wilson sitting on the floor clutching at his leg trying to staunch the flow of blood from the wound.

There was a first aid station on the wall opposite the door, but he obviously had not been able to get that far before shock had set in. Every soldier in the Alliance military received basic first aid training in boot camp, and Shepard had done field treatment of more gunshot wounds than he cared to count during his time, so he quickly pulled the medical kit apart till he found a medi-gel packet and a compression wrap. Telling Jacob to hold the leg still, he opened the medi-gel and applied it to the wound. As the wondrous substance sterilized, anesthetized, and sealed the wound he wrapped the compression wrap tightly around the leg to provide pressure and keep swelling down so Wilson could walk on the leg without re-opening the hole. The result was not pretty, but it would hold until they could get to a proper medical bay.

Something chimed in his helmet, then a message scrolled across: [Incoming video feed. Accept Yes/No?] He indicated that he accepted, and a window displayed in one quadrant of his HUD with the video feed. It showed the server room they were currently in, but the time stamp was almost an hour earlier. A nervous looking Wilson stepped through the door and shuffled over to a console by the wall, opening his omnitool as he went. The feed accelerated, the timestamp indicating that several minutes passed, then slowed to normal speed as two technicians walked through the door and Wilson hid. He shot the two technicians, then fiddled briefly with his omnitool as the alarms started blaring. The feed accelerated again until Jacob and himself walked through the door. It cut off at that point and a message displayed instead. [I traced the override on their IFF protocols; Wilson set off the mechs, he is a traitor and needs to be dealt with. M.]

Shepard had seen all he needed to, he whipped around and shot Wilson between the eyes. Jacob, who had been helping the now deceased man get up, cursed loudly and pulled out his sidearm, automatically scanning for threats. When he only saw Shepard his face displayed shock, but he was too much a soldier to let it come out in his voice.

"What did you do that for?"

Shepard's response was concise and perhaps a bit blunt: "He was a traitor." He then indicated that he would send a file to Jacob's omnitool. Jacob viewed the footage and groaned. Coming to a decision, he addressed Shepard. "If I tell you who I work for, will you trust me enough not to shoot me like that?"

Shepard shrugged his shoulders and said "No promises."

Jacob figured that was the most answer he would get out of the man and forged ahead. "At least you are honest, I can appreciate that. I work for The Illusive Man. He heads the organization known as Cerberus."

The name sounded familiar to Shepard, and he thought furiously until it registered. "I took out a good number of Cerberus ops when I was hunting Saren. Why would they want to bring me back?"

Jacob either did not know or didn't think it was his place to tell as he answered "Those questions are way above my pay grade. You should ask The Illusive Man when you see him." Gunfire outside the second door reminded both men that they had somewhere else to be. Shepard picked up the pistol that Wilson had been holding and gave it a quick inspection. It passed the cursory check and he attached it to the magnetic point on his hip as a backup. Many rookie soldiers would have tried to use the second pistol in their off hand for additional firepower, but Shepard knew better than to split his attention between hands to aim, besides, it would just burn through ammunition quicker.

ME/T

A pair of patrolling mechs was reduced to spare parts and the men continued on towards the shuttle bay, now only a few dozen meters away according to the nav point on Shepard's HUD. Several mechs in Standby mode were positioned on the landing just inside the door. He never gave them the chance to unfold, as between Jacob lifting them in the air with biotics and several well placed elbow strikes the relatively fragile chassis of the mechs were shattered before their processors could spin up. A glance to the right showed a Kodiak drop shuttle on a separate platform, and ramps lead up from the current landing to the cargo handling area. Selecting the ramp closest to the shuttle, Shepard moved forwards until he heard the comically female artificial voice say "Hostiles Detected" and the telltale whining of servomotors spinning up to the left.

_How many of these junk mechs are on this station anyways?_ He started firing on the mech closest to him, enjoying the interplay of sparking circuitry as his disruptor rounds caused havoc in its systems. The things were not terribly dangerous except in groups, and that gave him time to experiment on the best ways to take them down. Jacob was busy with a few that had been hidden on the lower landing, and Shepard was downing his third mech on the cargo platform when a new bunch emerged from a room on the far side. He had barely noticed them when a ball of biotic energy shot past him and took the group dead center, shattering their frames and twisting the internal systems. Sparing a glance over his shoulder, he saw the woman from earlier standing in the control room for the shuttle bay. Noting the lack of hostiles, he called down to Jacob

"Clear up here, let's go!" Jacob didn't waste time responding, he simply jogged up the ramp to join Shepard. Miranda was straight to business "Let's get going, we have to get you to our employer."

"You mean The Illusive Man, I know you work for Cerberus." Why people always insisted on being vague about such things was beyond Shepard, he much preferred straight dealing. The ones who always had some ambiguous goal and tried to justify it by dancing around the topic were responsible for more unfortunate events than pretty much any other thing in the galaxy.

"Should have known Jacob would tell you about that. Very well, since we are clearing the air so to speak, is there anything else you would like to know?"

Although he was normally very good at reading people, the way her face closed down and her tone went flat as she spoke made it impossible to tell what she was thinking. It was a debate whether she was trying not to laugh or that she was seriously angry and trying not to show it, and Shepard figured he could clip a coin and have just as good a chance at figuring it out. Although there were several things he wanted to know, none were pressing enough to stand around in a station full of hostile mechs listening to the answers.

"Not right now, I've had enough of this station."

* * *

So everyone knows, I feel the need to change the title to something more appropriate, feel free to leave suggestions in the reviews. Freedoms Progress sequence is about 90% finished, so look for it soon.


	5. Chapter 4

Sorry about the wait folks, combination of writers block on the end of the chapter and life getting in the way held this back.

Anyway, you all knew Freedom's Progress was coming, and frankly I wanted to get to Shepard kicking names and taking... well you get the idea. So I decided to skip some of the talking heads bullshit. Anytime I do so, you can expect that things follow the events of the game, I only plan to include those sections when I intend to make significant changes.

* * *

"Our first priority is to look for survivors."

"That is unlikely, there were no survivors at any of the other colonies that were…"

The metallic voice of the shuttle's VI interrupted Miranda's reply. "**Life signs detected. Error, data anomaly. Motion detected."**

Shepard perked up at this. "Bring up a visual on the monitor." The image was distorted by distance, but several security mechs were clearly moving in a coordinated manner towards a prefab unit in the residential section of the colony. A figure briefly exposed themselves in the window, and though details were unclear it was definitely wearing some sort of body suit and a full helmet. The build was wrong for a human, and Shepard could only think of one species that would match with the evidence.

"What is a Quarian doing on a human colony?" Before his companions could respond, another figure popped up next to the first, apparently checking something out of view. This one was clearly female, and as she ducked back down he caught a flash of light purple cloth. As the shuttle drew closer, the view became clearer. It was now apparent that the mechs were firing on the structure, as sparks flew from ricocheting shots.

"Shit, mechs again? VI, are there any human life signs present?"

"**Negative, the only life signs present are the anomalous grouping in that structure." **

Shepard was quick to make a judgment. "Fly directly overhead of that prefab, I am going to help out those Quarians."

"No offense Shepard, but how does flying overhead help them out?"

"Easy, I'm jumping out."

Tali'Zorah was of two minds about the current situation. Her team had confirmed the location of the young Quarian they had been sent to find, but when they touched down to try retrieving him they suddenly found security mechs had activated all over the colony. The initial attack had come as a surprise, but the marines in her squad quickly disabled one of the humanoid units, and they discovered that the machines had been programmed to attack movement. The team had advanced almost to the last known location of the young male before being cut off by a heavy weapons mech. They had retreated to the prefab unit to regroup and attempt to find a way around that wouldn't draw too much fire, none of them could afford a suit puncture at this point. She sincerely hoped that Veetor was in a spot that was safe from the mechs, but given the way they had only activated when her team had set down in the empty colony argued that somebody had to have done so. Since there were no humans there (_and why weren't there any signs of an evacuation?_) logic argued that it had to be Veetor in control of the machines.

The rattle of gunfire off the side of the prefab made her recognize that they hadn't completely broken contact before ducking inside. One of the marines checked out the window to assess the situation, and she decided to see for herself what was coming. A group of about fifteen mechs and a couple drones were slowly advancing from the industrial sector. The submachine guns the mechs were armed with were effectively useless against the metal outer wall of the structure, but the drones were armed with rockets designed to defeat armor, and could spell trouble if they got close enough.

Further away, movement caught her eye and she focused on it to reveal a head on view of a shuttle, human by the looks of it. She ducked clear of the window and addressed the rest of the team. "We have company inbound, it looks like the humans have sent someone to check out this colony. When we run into them let me do the talking, hopefully we can keep things civil." A low droning noise quickly became louder and she checked the window again. The shuttle had dropped in altitude and was headed straight towards her. As she watched it grow larger, the hatch on the side popped open and a single figure leapt out. Tali let out a gasp loud enough to alert the others when she saw that the shuttle was still a good twenty meters off the ground. The black clad figure did a complete flip before slamming into the ground in front of the mechs, raising a small cloud of dust and ice.

To her amazement, the black armor stood up, unlimbered an assault rifle, and began shooting at the mechs. This quickly drew the attention of the mechanical soldiers, and the group shifted their fire to the lone figure in the small square. By now most of her team had gathered by the window to watch, drawn by her involuntary vocalisms. The armored figure; apparently satisfied that it had the mechs' attention, stowed the assault rifle and extended a sniper rifle. Then, with an odd motion on its right arm it did something Tali would have thought impossible had she not witnessed it herself; the figure disappeared from view. A second later, the heavy report of a sniper rifle sounded, and one of the drones developed a large hole as did the mech beside it. On a line with those holes, the black armor shimmered back into visibility before charging into the midst of the remaining robots. Within seconds the mechs were disabled or destroyed, and the last drone let off a final spiteful rocket. The explosive munition was designed to defeat body armor, and by all accounts should have meant the end for the figure in black when it impacted full force on the side of the angular helmet. The explosion knocked the armored form to its knees, drawing the attention of whoever was behind the visor, and a shotgun blast tore the drone to pieces.

One of her team muttered "Keelah." It seemed none could find better words to describe what they had just witnessed. Tali herself had only chanced to see carnage like that twice in her life, and both times she had been in the company of a SpecTRe and a pissed off Krogan. This figure had done more damage in a shorter amount of time than that pairing ever managed, leading her to wonder; _If the Alliance had a soldier like this all along, why didn't they put __them__ up for the SpecTRes? _From the shape of the armor, now that it stayed still long enough for her to examine it, the wearer was supposedly a male human, but there was no way a normal human could have survived a twenty meter drop from a shuttle moving two hundred kilometers an hour, let alone come out of it in condition to fight so many enemies and win so quickly.

The man _yes, definitely a man_ stood up, shook his head slowly, and turned towards the prefab, stowing the shotgun as he walked towards the entrance. A flicker of motion in the periphery of her vision momentarily drew her attention. Two humans were entering the courtyard, presumably the other occupants of the shuttle she had seen. One was a solidly built male wearing combat fatigues, and the other was a female wearing a figure hugging white and black outfit that could not possibly provide any serious form of protection. Her grasp of human facial expressions was better than most Quarians' due to her time spent among them during her pilgrimage, and she easily recognized the approval on the male's face as he surveyed the scene. The female pursed her lips, but was otherwise unreadable. The man in the armor stopped and waited for them to approach.

As they drew closer she saw the female human start to say something, and her curiosity lead her to crank up the gain on her envirosuit's audio sensors. "…was extremely reckless. You knew there was no way for us to back you up when you opened the door. I just hope the shock absorbers in your armor aren't too damaged from that jump."

A heavily modulated voice replied "I turned them off, they should be fine. Anyways, it worked, so let's go see what the Quarians can tell us about what happened here."

Tali was incredulous at what she heard the man say. The way he said it implied that the armor's mechanical systems hadn't even been activated, suggesting that he had absorbed the shock of landing with his legs alone. Then the second part of his statement registered. Her team was operating under radio silence while trying to avoid the mechs and the environmental suits they wore masked their life signs from most sensor systems. He had obviously known that they were present before jumping from the shuttle, and even knew exactly where to look for them when the dust settled. That suggested military grade sensors at his disposal, and the Alliance didn't waste those on simple drop shuttles. As she was puzzling this out, the door to the prefab opened and the three newcomers stepped through.

One of the marines closest to the door recognized the logo printed on the combat fatigues of the second male. The hissed "Cerberus!" was barely audible over the whine of weapons unfolding and powering up. The dark skinned male and the female quickly brought sidearms to bear on the marines aiming at them, but the mysterious man in armor simply stood still, poised for action but not looking to provoke. Quickly breaking free of her stupor Tali jumped between the two armed groups. "Prazza, stand down! Let me handle this!"

At the sound of her voice, the armored man gave a quick jerk, and the rattle of heavy plates drew her head around to him. "We have to stop meeting like this," he said, "people might get the impression you enjoy being in danger."

She suffered a brief moment of confusion before a thought struck her. "Wait, Shepard?"

Instead of answering verbally, the man went to remove his helmet. The sudden motion caused a few of her team to snap their weapons back up, but they eased down again as his hands made contact with the sides of the headgear. A quiet pop signaled the release of an airtight seal, and he ducked slightly as he pulled the obscuring equipment clear of his head. She instantly recognized the face that was revealed, even with the new network of scarring that covered it, but her mind refused the possibility. "No, you can't be… I saw you die!"

He smirked at that, then said "If I am dead then I guess I can't really ask if the Geth Data I gave you helped with your pilgrimage."

That broke through to her at least. "Keelah, it really is you! But why are you here? Why are you with Cerberus?"

"I almost died Tali, Cerberus rebuilt me." _Although until I saw the data on what they did to my body I didn't realize how literal that was._ "As repayment they requested that I investigate the human colonies that have been disappearing."

"Do you trust them Shepard? You know what they are like, what they have done!"

"Tali, I trust Cerberus as far as you could throw the Mako. But they spent over six billion credits to bring me back, and they seem to be the only people investigating these missing colonies. I am working with them for now, but I am not part of them at all. Now let me ask you what you are doing here. Do you know anything about what happened to the colony?"

The marine from before, Prazza, interjected "they spent six billion credits to bring you back? No soldier is worth that kind of money." Tali shot back "what you just saw in the courtyard barely counts as a warm-up for him, it was money well spent." The way Prazza stiffened at her sharp reply indicated his offense at her defending someone from outside the fleet, but she really couldn't be troubled with his xenophobic attitude right now.

"We are here looking for a young Quarian named Veetor. He was here on his pilgrimage and his suit sent a medical distress call recently. We came to investigate with medical supplies and suit repair kits, but when we got here he hid in a warehouse on the far side of the colony from us and the mechs activated. A YMIR model cut off our approach and drove us back. We were trying to figure a way around them when you showed up."

The human female piped up "he must have some information on what happened here, we need to get to him and see what he knows."

Shepard agreed with that sentiment. "We should work together then, my team can run distraction for the mechs while Tali and the others locate Veetor." One of the Quarian marines spoke up "how do we know these Cerberus types won't betray us?" Prazza obviously sensed an opening and took advantage "yeah, are we supposed to be working for Cerberus now?" Tali had taken all she was willing to put up with from him and verbally put her foot down. "No Prazza, you are working for Me, and if you have a problem with that you can go wait on the ship."

Shepard patiently waited out that exchange, and said "keep in radio contact, use the frequency from the old days." With that, he spun around and walked out of the structure, his companions following close behind. The door had barely closed behind them when a patrolling group of assault drones flew overhead, quickly dropping out of sight behind a structure further down their intended path. Jacob called out a warning over the radio "Drones, they usually mean heavier units nearby." Shepard recalled his experiences with battle drones during his hunt for Saren, noting that they were vulnerable to tech overload and disruptor ammunition.

He adjusted his assault rifle to the appropriate setting before donning his helmet with a grin. This was going to be simpler than he had anticipated, the combat drones were very limited in their response patterns, and anyone who had worked with them or fought against them more than twice pretty much knew exactly how they would act in any situation. The security mechs that were sure to respond to the gunfire were slightly more flexible in their attack patterns, but they were still very predictable. They weren't by any means stealthy either, between the metallic footsteps and their vocal warnings any time they sensed movement one had plenty of warning that they were in the vicinity, whereas the combat drones were almost silent in flight and could surprise someone who wasn't paying attention.

The only worry he entertained about dealing with the mechanical targets was the YMIR that Tali had mentioned. The heavy mechs were ponderous at best, but were overall much more dangerous than a whole platoon of the security models. Depending on the configuration, it could have anything from chain-guns to rocket launchers, with enough reserve ammunition to keep an entire platoon of marines pinned down until an allied unit could perform a flanking maneuver. They were also constructed with much heavier components than the lighter mechs, and higher quality armor plate covered vital areas, resulting in extremely durable units that could withstand plenty of punishment even if the built in kinetic shields failed.

Fortunately for those who had to fight the miniature walking tanks, they were intentionally limited in their programming. Humankind's experience with the Hunter-Killer units during the SKYNET war resulted in extremely stringent regulations regarding armed machines and independent action. It wasn't enough to keep people from continually revisiting the idea of mechanical devices to replace or reinforce live soldiers, especially if they could sell it as a "Force Multiplier" to whichever representative would benefit from having the things built in their political district.

Between Miranda using Overload, Shepard's disruptor rounds, and Jacob confusing their gyroscopes with his biotic Pull, the flight of combat drones was dispatched easily. They ducked inside a prefab to reload and hopefully scare up some medigel. From the way things seemed to be going, there would be use for it soon, and as they had come expecting an empty colony they had not brought any with them. Some quick scrounging turned up a first aid kit with a couple packs of the wonderful substance, and the group was on the move again heading deeper into the colony.

A run in with a small group of security models introduced Shepard to a new favorite target, the FENRIS mech. Vaguely resembling a bulldog from Earth, or perhaps the Varren that appeared throughout the galaxy, the machines moved on four short legs and had powerful electrical stun weapons embedded in their flat circular snouts. A single hit from that weapon was enough to drain the shields on a normal hardsuit, and extremely painful to unshielded recipients. The stubby machines were not designed to engage at a distance, and the loud electronic bark they emitted when a target was detected gave them away easily. When he discovered that a well placed shot on the snout would cause the things to explode Shepard quickly adapted and saved ammunition for more important targets.

Jacob had just pulled the last security model into range of his shotgun when Tali's frantic voice broke over the radio. "Shepard, Prazza took a team and rushed on ahead. They found where Veetor is hiding but got ambushed by that heavy mech, its ripping them apart!" Miranda was quick to show her distaste, although Shepard was not sure whether it was for Prazza in particular or Quarians in general. "We had to have expected this, we never should have let them out of sight." He wasn't surprised, either at Miranda's reaction or that Prazza had defied orders. The man had seemed like a trouble maker when they first met, and it was obvious he had been looking for an excuse to disobey Tali even then. Beating personnel of a known pro-human terrorist organization to a member of the fleet before they could question him was something that the opinionated marine could pass off as a valid reason to any board of inquiry his actions might draw.

Unfortunately, Tali had also confirmed the presence of a dangerous obstacle. The heavy mech was in the way of their goal, and from the sound of her radio call there were quickly going to be a lot less potential distractions for its targeting programs to sort out. Shepard found himself wishing that he had thought to grab one of the Plasma guns from the armory when the team was gearing up. The heavy weapons were hellish to cart around, and burned through power cells faster than a Krogan through Varren steaks, but their effectiveness against heavily armored targets was unparalleled. Even if the target in question had shields, they were only kinetic barriers and a single plasma bolt would knock them down. During his time in the Alliance he had heard tales of Biotic soldiers who could imbue their ammunition with miniature warp fields to achieve similar results, but neither of his companions had displayed that kind of ability. He made sure that his shotgun and assault rifle were set for firing Disruptor ammo and hoped it would still be effective against the armor plating sure to be present on the target.

A check of the map display on his omnitool showed that they were less than a hundred meters from the area in question, blocked only by a large gate in the containment wall. He motioned Miranda and Jacob forward, and took off at a jog towards the gate.

Tali silently berated herself for losing control of her squad. The signs had been apparent that Prazza was not pleased with her style of command for most of the mission, but she had not been able to bring herself to confront him directly about the issue before the Human ground team had showed up. The reappearance of an entity she had thought dead was enough distraction that she had not been able to reassert control in time to prevent him ignoring orders. Now she was forced to hide in a small building on the side of the cargo area and watch the results of her failure as heavy machine gun fire chewed through the marines she was responsible for. A ping in her ear indicated an incoming radio transmission, and she was relieved to hear Shepard telling her that his team was at the gate to the area. She could just see the top of his helmet over the perimeter wall, and hoped that his companions had taken cover as she sent a command to the gate with her omnitool.

Screams and gunfire from further into the compound were drawing nearer to her position, indicating that the heavy mech was in pursuit of what remained of her squad. The running fire fight had just come around the corner of a low warehouse as the gate opened. The heavy metal panel was barely open wide enough for a single person when Shepard came charging through. In his right hand he had an assault rifle leveled while his left held a shotgun by the frame. Tali watched as her old commander ran straight for the large robot, firing the assault rifle in a prolonged burst until the heat sink reached capacity. Rather than cycle in a new one, he simply dropped the rifle and swung the shotgun up into a two handed grip before resuming fire. There was a telltale crackle of an Overload charge hitting the mech's shields, and just as the shotgun reached capacity they dropped completely. At this point the threat assesment software in the machine determined that the Human charging it was a bigger threat than a half dozen beaten Quarians with outdated weaponry.

Miranda was dismayed to see the obvious change in targets, the last time she had encountered a YMIR like the one in front of her it had almost blasted Shepard's body into oblivion. Her hopes of a better outcome were low, but she would be damned if she wouldn't try to distract it from him so she sent an entire thermal clip of sub-machine gun rounds into the robot. Jacob had his shotgun out and was sending incendiary rounds into the machine's armor as fast as he could pump the action. For his part, Shepard saw the weapon arm change to point at him and dropped his now overheated shotgun. A quick tap on his right wrist and his tactical cloak engaged, giving him time to run closer to the machine and draw his pistol. As he drew nearer to the machine he was able to make out finer details that he would have missed engaging at a distance. A quick check of the weapon arms had him thanking the maintenance crew for their laziness.

Given the modular design of the weapons systems the heavy mech was intended to be fitted with, there were several release catches on each arm to allow for simple removal without complex tools. Normally these catches were concealed behind a cosmetic plate that doubled as armor, but this particular unit did not have those plates installed. The most common reason for the condition was lazy repair techs trying to shave time off their work, and since there was no structural need for the plates it was normally ignored by supervisors. Whatever the reason, Shepard had unrestricted access to the release catches holding the weapons onto the arms, provided he could get close enough to trip them without getting hit.

Jacob, who was unsure of his location, had ceased shooting at the mech, but he seemed to have grasped the concept of playing distraction, as he was instead firing in the air well above it. His gambit was successful in keeping the moronic automaton focused on him, and his barriers were paying the price of its attention. Noting that they were about to fail completely, he ducked behind a shipping crate to let them recharge. The mech simply kept firing, chewing away at the crate and its contents to get at him.

Shepard noted that the arm with the machine cannon had settled into a steady position as the mech focused on his teammate, and darted forward to release the catches holding it in place. Due to the position, the weapon was now resting on a structural support, but as soon as it was lowered it would slide free, the sheer weight would also help to break the electrical connections powering and controlling it. He backed away as the weapon's cooling system gave an overheat signal, staying well clear of the high pressure steam venting from ports in the armored casing.

As the overheated gun began its cooling cycle, the mech shifted its other arm to bring a rocket launcher to bear, and began to drop the machine gun to counterbalance. The gun slid free just as the rocket ignited, and the sudden imbalance caused the mech to shoot the rocket into the ground before its system could compensate. The blast from the High-Explosive Anti-Tank rocket was sufficient to strip the armor from the body of the mech in several places, leaving its inner structure and electrical systems exposed. Shepard took advantage of the openings, firing disruptor rounds into every system he could see. The sparking circuitry glowed throughout the unit before it suddenly slumped in place. Knowing there were only two reasons a mech would do that, he yelled to Miranda and Jacob to find cover, and dived toward an overturned vehicle to make good on his own advice. A faint beep was heard from the bowels of the heavy mech before a bright orange fireball and massive blast wave signaled an overloaded power core.

Rising from cover, Shepard quickly scanned the area for additional threats. Off to one side of the site he saw what remained of the Quarian squad. Three of them were walking under their own power, although one of them had a dislocated arm and another was obviously on a sprained leg. One was lying on the ground, but moving around in such a way as to suggest only having been knocked out. The last one he could see was not so lucky, a jagged piece of metal had punched right through her torso and pinned her to the wall behind, leaving little hope for her survival.

Seeing as none of the environment suits matched Tali's, he assumed she was in cover somewhere. That assumption proved true when he heard her call over the radio that he should try to locate Veetor while she tended to her wounded squad. Looking around the open area, he spotted a structure that appeared to be the command node for the mechs. Motioning for Miranda and Jacob to follow, he started towards the ramp leading up to the entrance.

Inside was a small room filled with spare parts in racks and a bank of monitor screens on the back wall. A helmeted head poked over the top of the office chair positioned before the screens, and a muffled string of mumbled words gave indication that the occupant was conscious, if not aware of his surroundings. Shepard called out "Veetor? I need to talk to you."

The mumbling continued, accompanied by rapid typing on a console. Deciding that simple words were not going to do the trick, he pulled out his pistol and shot the desk next to the console. A startled Veetor spun around and stood up from the chair. "You... You're human! Where did you hide?"

Ten minutes later Shepard was escorting a visibly enraged Tali and a shaken Veetor back down the ramp into the maintenance area. He had to physically restrain her from charging back up the ramp when Miranda carelessly let slip 'that she didn't see what the big deal was' with Cerberus questioning Veetor. _Jacob I can believe being naive about such a thing, but Miranda has to know what would happen if he was turned over for "questioning." _

"Tali, let it go. You already gave me a copy of Veetor's Omnitool data, and I am making sure he is on your ship to get treated. I know that there is bad blood between you and Cerberus, but please let me handle my 'associates' my way."

Looking slowly from the hand gripping her arm like an iron vise to his helmeted face, Tali realized the futility of attempting to fight his request. He had never gripped her like that during their previous association, but she recognized the tone of his voice from past experiences with racist crew members on the Normandy. That same flat tone had signaled the end of two military careers for otherwise promising soldiers who could not get past their prejudices, it also had announced the death sentence of a group of slavers encountered during the chase for Saren. Drawing a deep breath, she slowly let out her anger and turned her thoughts towards other things. Nodding for him to release her arm, she remembered why she had gone searching for him before overhearing Miranda trying to grab Veetor.

"Shepard, before I got distracted I was hoping you could help us with recovering the body of one of my squad. She was pinned to a wall and we cannot get her loose."

"Sure thing Tali, I saw her earlier. It will probably cause more damage to the body trying to pull it free though, is that a problem?"

Catching her signal to the negative, Shepard walked over to where the remaining Quarians were clustered around the body in question. Edging them aside, he set one hand against the wall and gripped the offending debris with his other hand. Settling his stance, he applied slow, even pressure as he pulled on the metal and pushed the wall. With the groan of stressed metal and a crackling of crumbling concrete the piece came free, and he quickly caught the limp body with his free arm before it dropped to the pavement. Passing his burden off to one of the Quarian marines, the section he had gripped drew stares and several darting glances at him before the group moved towards their ship. In the weeks to come, those marines would be the butt of several jokes for their account of how a human had put finger sized dents into four centimeter battle plate.

Before turning away to board his own shuttle, Shepard had to ask one last question.

"Tali, please think about coming to work with me again. I could really use your skills and I need someone I can trust right now. I know you still have responsibilities to the Fleet but I don't think I can handle only being around Cerberus personnel for this whole mission. Let me know through my extranet account as soon as you have an answer."

"I will Shepard, good luck."

* * *

A/N: To those that think there should be some form of romance option with this story, I give you fair warning that I suck at writing that kind of thing. If the readers insist upon it, there will be one, just don't think you will get any say in who or how.

Next Chapter, Shepard gets on the Normandy SR2 and heads for Omega, but you guys already knew that right? Needless to say, I am having fun working out the first interactions with Aria and her crew...


	6. Chapter 5

A/N: Trying something new here. Extended _italics_ are flashbacks.

* * *

"Acquiring Professor Solus seems to be a logical first step Commander."

"Who are you?"

"I am the ship's Enhanced Defense Intelligence, you may call me EDI."

_Gunfire sparking off the railings and walkway frames the Geth Destroyer heading right for me. My shotgun barely even slows it down as it charges. I hear Tali say she is going to hack it, then my vision goes red. Something not in my control takes over, and I watch my hands grasp the upper arms of the machine as it reaches me. I feel a strain, and am amazed to see the arms coming free of the Destroyer's body. My right foot swings into view and plants hard against its chest, tearing the arms completely free and sending the body flying back the way it came. The red fades as I hear the quarian's exclamation of surprise, and I see that I still hold the mechanical arms. What the hell just happened to me? A glance down the walkway reveals the Destroyer landed almost eight meters away. How in the hell did I launch eleven feet and 200 kilos of automaton that far?_

"Helmsman aren't happy when someone takes control of the ship from them, especially Joker."

"I do not have control over the Normandy's systems commander. During combat operations I operate the Electronic Warfare and Cyber Warfare Suites. Other than that I monitor the ship's status and crew interactions."

_We are just barely inside the Geth outpost and we are already neck deep in their combat platforms. Garrus is holding his own, that assault rifle is tearing holes in them with the incendiary ammo. Tali has my back, catching any that leak past me with her shotgun and using tech mines to give the machines fits. I stray too close to one of her overload charges and lose my shields, but that is nothing new, fighting in close quarters like this means that is a regular occurrence. Usually I am not blocking the only route through the room though, and Tali doesn't quite manage to get a clear line of sight around me when she initiates the hack of the Geth troopers' IFF protocols. I watch my vision go red again, and that other thing takes over. I charge straight into the group of Geth, picking up a trooper armed with a rocket launcher and pile driving it into one of those annoying hoppers. I can't decide where to focus as both hands retrieve a weapon from the magnetic holsters on my armor, and I flinch mentally as the shotgun in my right hand fires at the same time as the pistol in my left. Two more Geth bodies are on the floor, the red fades from my vision and I feel control return to my arms. Although I can't find fault in the effectiveness of whatever it is that takes over when that happens, the loss of control is disturbing to say the least._

"Electronic and Cyber Warfare you say? As in hacking enemy systems?"

"That is correct Commander Shepard. I can disrupt enemy targeting systems and execute cyber attacks on their computer systems to maximize the effectiveness of our weapon based attacks."

_Great. The ship has an AI built to hack enemy systems by using immensely powerful transmitters. I know what happens to me from a freaking omnitool tech attack, I __do not__ want to find out what starship level equipment can do to me._

"Please refrain from conducting any such attacks while I am in the area of effect. If you cannot comply with that as a request I will make it an official order, even if it impairs combat effectiveness."

Miranda jumped slightly upon hearing this. It was a clue that he might be aware of his situation, although nothing in the information she had studied from before his "death" indicated he was. Her speculation was interrupted by EDI.

"Commander, as it would impair combat effectiveness I must ask your reasoning behind such an order."

"I should have known you wouldn't just accept it." _Goddamn programming contingencies._ "If you must know, I have had previous experiences with similar attacks affecting me on a physical level. The results of those experiences can be corroborated by the Quarian squad leader we met on Freedom's Progress, as she was witness to them."

"Very well Commander. Your reasoning has been logged as an attachment to the standing order. Logging you out."

Miranda was not as simple to convince as the computer. She followed him doggedly through the initial tour of the ship, and cornered him by the access door to the lab once they finished. "Shepard, EDI was installed on this ship specifically to perform its stated function. That order you just gave essentially negates its ability to do so, and I saw nothing in any of the materials I researched trying to bring you back that suggests what you just stated as a reason."

"Operative Lawson, how is it that you have progressed as far as you have in Cerberus without hearing of sanitized reports? Of course I made sure no mention of it ever made it into paperwork or recordings. If it had, how long would I have lasted before the R&D types tried to get me in their labs instead of doing my job?"

Shepard watched the woman gape for a moment before she resumed her normally controlled facade. As tempting as it was to smirk at her being flustered, he still was not fully comfortable in dealing with the one person that knew what exactly had been done to bring him back to the universe at large, so he allowed his face to show nothing of his feelings.

She was less concerned with the words Shepard used than she was with the way he had responded. Not only had he given her what seemed a thinly veiled insult, but the total lack of emotion driving his words told her that she was edging into dangerous territory by questioning him. Her instructions from The Illusive Man clearly stated that she was to support Shepard in his mission to stop the Collectors; that she was questioning his decisions already, and openly no less, did not bode well for their working relationship. Thankfully for her personal sense of security, she knew that the Shepard personality the galaxy knew was long on patience, she shuddered to think what he could do to her should he decide she was more obstacle than asset to success.

Project Lazarus was still technically ongoing as well, since the full extent of Shepard's capabilities was still unknown. Freedom's Progress had shown that he was adaptable as ever, and the leap from the shuttle had established that the musculo-skeletal structure of his body was far more capable than the techs rebuilding it ever dreamed. It also displayed that he was relatively aware of his strength and durability, which was distressing in combination with what he had just revealed. There was no way to ensure he would remain stable should he discover the full extent of what he really was, and the last thing anyone in Cerberus needed to deal with was more highly unstable killing machines. Yeoman Kelly Chambers was going to be earning her pay keeping tabs on Shepard's mental state, although Miranda frankly wondered how effective the psychologist cum yeoman would be at that. More than once in her dealings with Shepard he had just seemed to shut down emotionally, his face schooled into the best non-expression she had ever seen, and most telling of all, his eyes lost the subtle shine that had fooled so many into thinking they were organic.

Thinking back to Freedom's Progress, she had to admit her actions did not help the situation in the least; Jacob had wisely stayed quiet in his seat on the shuttle when Shepard had called her to task for it. At the time, his helmet had concealed his face, but the flat, emotionless tone of his voice had caused her to suppress a shiver even then, and hearing it directed at her again made her think hard about what she was going to need to learn about dealing with the only true hope of humanity.

Something about him ate at the back of her mind when she was in close proximity, even though she knew intellectually exactly what he was, her primitive reactions to him were telling. After spending what little time she had with him, her initial feelings upon his "awakening" were only magnified, not muted as she had expected (and hoped). Her physical attraction to him was easy enough to rationalize, her instinctual urges were recognizing a superior example of the species even if her mind dismissed them when logic and knowledge were applied. The reaction she had the hardest time with was the impression that she should be running as fast and as far away from him as possible. There was no way for her conscious mind to fully override it, as she happened to agree whenever she thought about his true nature. So far, the safest place in the galaxy was probably by his side (or directly behind him), but it would be safer to walk around unarmed on Tuchanka and insult a clan leader than to be on his bad side.

"Very well Commander, I see your point. If you need me for anything I will be in my office on the Crew Deck."

_Well, she recovered pretty quick, although not terribly gracefully. I should talk to Operative Taylor about how to deal with her on an ongoing basis since I obviously am not getting rid of her anytime soon._

Shepard was moving towards the galaxy map display in order to set a course when a petite redhead blocked his way.

"Commander Shepard! It is such a pleasure to finally meet you! I am Kelly Chambers, your personal yeoman."

"Miss Chambers, I have never had a yeoman before, the Alliance wasn't big on assigning crew members to tasks a VI could handle. What exactly were your assigned duties?"

"Well Commander, I was to act as your administrative assistant, as well as your gateway to the crew. I would be the one to handle most minor issues that crop up between crew members and let you know if your intervention was required. Other than that I am to manage your comm traffic and personal messages."

"I apologize for this Miss Chambers, but I take a different approach to crew management than most other ship commanders. Your services will not be needed for that, and as far as managing my messages and comm traffic, I have re-acquired a VI program that I trust to handle that the way I prefer it done. Your position was no doubt created with the best intentions, but I have no use for it. The best I can offer as a replacement assignment is part of the maintenance personnel, or perhaps helping clean equipment in the armory."

"Ah, Commander, I was assigned this slot by The Illusive Man, I hardly think he would do so if he didn't think I could help you."

"Miss Chambers, again, I run my ship very differently from other ship commanders. I read up on all bridge crew before I stepped on this ship, and I know about your degrees in psychology. I have enough experience in that particular field to recognize a crew member having issues, and I also know enough about the field to completely throw off any analysis you might try to make of me for Cerberus. You have two options at this point; accept my offer of a new assignment, or walk out the airlock. If you continue to push the issue, I will make sure you do so without a vac suit, are we clear?"

The young woman had visibly deflated from her previous good mood, and his last words caused her to blanch. She did not appear to be capable of speech during her valiant effort to hold back tears, but Shepard accepted her jerky nod as acceptance. He waved towards the elevator, and she took the obvious dismissal, quickly disappearing below-decks.

"EDI, I know you are listening, please make a note in the log files you are inevitably recording that Crewman Kelly Chambers is reassigned as an assistant maintenance technician. I believe her supervisor would be Mess Sergeant Gardner. Her shipboard privileges and duties are to change however is appropriate for her new posting."

"Acknowledged Commander, Logging you out."

Resuming his interrupted trip to the galaxy map, Shepard reviewed the dossiers that had been forwarded to him. The salarian doctor was a definite priority, and while he was near Omega he may as well check on this Archangel character. This one had potential, having someone on board who was a good tactician would help immensely on operations where he had to use a detached team.

Bringing up the coordinates, he quickly mapped the route and forwarded it to Joker.

"Joker, we're heading to Omega. I know you are eager to put the new ship through its paces, but we are trying to keep a low profile, so no buzzing Elcor freighters on the way!"

"You're such a killjoy Commander. It looks like our ETA is about 45 hours, but I can probably shave a few off if you let me open it up all the way."

"I'm not in that much of a hurry Joker, keep it under 80% power until the engineers are sure everything is settled in right."

"Roger that Cap'n Crunch, moving out now."

A/N: Yes, Joker has a good relationship with Shepard. Yes, Shepard just kicked Kelly out of a job. Although I ultimately know what will happen with Miranda, I feel like exploring a bit more of her relationship to the savior of the galaxy.

A/N2: Unfortunately, real life is interfering with my writing, and things are just going to get worse in the next few months. I am taking this as an opportunity to declare that I will be placing all of my stories on Hiatus until after December. Hopefully that will allow me time to get personal affairs in order and still deliver a quality update in January.


	7. Chapter 6

**It Liiiiiiiiives! Sorry, as I stated when I posted the teaser for this chapter, my muse is a fickle bitch. Real Life has decided to intrude as well, making my already sporadic update schedule even worse. Anyway, finally got this one finished and uploaded. Apologies again for dropping off the face of the internet for a while.**

* * *

Three days. Three full cycles of the never to be sufficiently damned outpost of every negative thing in the Terminus Systems had passed since the job-that-wasn't. Without his help the rest of the squad had been slaughtered by the corrupt mercs that plagued the station. The two that had still drawn breath when he returned were unable to even hold a coherent conversation, and had ceased to do even that less than a few hours afterward. As if they had planned it from the beginning, the first merc assaults began just after he had placed the last body in a storage bag for later burial.

Whoever was in charge of the unlikely alliance knew how to deal with entrenched defenses, they were spreading out a series of small to mid-sized assaults on the hidden base just enough that each lull would just about cause him to doze off. Through a judicious use of the hidden traps around the base and a truly ridiculous amount of stimulants he had managed to hold them off every time, but the being known to the residents of Omega as Archangel was wearing down. Knowing the weak point of the Mantis gunship the Blue Suns had tried to use against him was one of the few things he was willing to thank his father for, and the attacks had slacked off since he disabled it. Now he was using his vantage point to pick off foolish mercenaries in the area behind barricades across the bridge. Every so often a Blood Pack Vorcha would be stupid enough to wander into the open, or a low-level flunky from Eclipse or the Blue Suns would try to make a dash across, and as a result would end up with much less brain matter than they started with.

Pulling back from the scope of the rifle, a flicker of movement far down the boulevard caught his eye, and the primitive instincts from his species' past as an avian predator locked his gaze on it. Unthinkingly, he shouldered the rifle and brought the crosshairs into alignment with the head of a man armored in black. The unusual coloration of the armor caused him to pause, it didn't match any of the mercenary bands that had been hounding him, but the last assault on his position had been a mish-mash of freelance types. Deciding the black armor was another freelancer being paid to attack him, Archangel squeezed the trigger.

-ME/T-

Even in a place as lawless as Omega, there was still authority to be observed. Aria and her band of thugs had tried to intimidate him from the moment the Normandy docked, but she had provided useful information. The good doctor Mordin Solus had been holed up in his clinic while two mercenary bands had fought for control of the plague ridden streets, but thanks to some quick running and gunning, the pathetic resistance from the Blood Pack at the environmental control station had been neutralized. Mordin was currently transferring his belongings to the tech lab on the ship, the poor crewman who volunteered to help was probably getting quite the earful. Aria had chosen to accost him as his ground team returned from the medical clinic in order to tell him that the being the dossier called Archangel was under attack from the most powerful mercenary groups on the station.

Getting the batarian recruiter to sign them up for the attack on Archangel's base was simple, as was using the mechanical augmentation of his armor to crush the cheap pistol of the kid who came in after he turned to leave. The batarian who met them after the short aircar ride told him to meet some Cafka further down the compound. Walking along the street towards the designated spot, a single whip-crack sounded, followed by a muffled thump as a body hit the ground. Turning a corner revealed the fresh corpse perhaps a dozen meters down the barricaded street.

"Archangel seems to be on his toes, we should be careful." Miranda was about to add to the statement when his head was slammed backwards from an impact on his helmet. Once again, the tough composite held against fire that would have ignored lesser materials, but the transfer of momentum was enough to bowl Shepard to the ground.

-ME/T-

Seeing the black armor again on the edge of his vision caused him to pull back from the scope momentarily. The man wearing it was shaking his head and obviously saying something to his companions, who promptly looked at their surroundings before speaking back. Whatever passed between them, the figure reached up and began pulling off the helmet, presumably to check it over. Archangel was about to pull the trigger to finish him off when the helmet finally cleared the man's head, revealing a face from his past and freezing him in place. The supposedly dead man turned and looked straight at his scope and quirked one of the hairy ridges over his eye (humans had such _weird_ characteristics) before giving a slow shake of his head and doffing the helmet again. A moment later the telltale shimmer of a kinetic barrier activating surrounded the specter and Archangel drew a breath he had forgotten to take before shifting his aim to one of the idiots standing on the barricades.

-ME/T-

The way the mercenary groups had barricaded the boulevard leading to Archangel's hideout forced any freelancers arriving from elsewhere to wind their way through the various affiliated areas in order to get to the assembly point. Shepard and co first arrived in the designated Eclipse area, seemingly interrupting a briefing. They were brusquely pointed to the door on the far wall and pointedly ignored, allowing Jacob to surreptitiously swipe a datapad lying on a crate near the pathway for later inspection.

Turning left through the door brought the threesome into a storage bay filled with mechs of all sorts. Folded FENRIS and LOKI mechs stood in neat rows along one wall, and two hulking YMIRs in support frames blocked access further into the bay. The flickering lighting made details hard to make out, but brief glimpses of another mech behind them suggested an older model from a different manufacturer. A maintenance console had leads running to the various units, making it a simple matter to reset the targeting parameters of the artificial soldiers. The Eclipse contingent was in for a rude surprise when they tried to use their hole card.

Perhaps the most obvious sign of the breakdown in discipline among the mercenary groups was the amount of easily pilfered items laying out in the open, from heavy-weapon power cells to datapads linked to bank accounts. Since the plan was to hinder the mercenaries as much as possible, any and all such items located were re-purposed to the cause as quickly as they were found. Under the assumption that one could never have too much medigel going into a likely firefight, any medigel dispensers were emptied of their stock into a storage container on Jacobs' or Mirandas' belts after topping Shepard's' own supply.

Coming across a group of beings in mismatched armor of varying quality, a brief inquiry directed the trio across the boulevard towards a large maintenance bay. Making the crossing, the report of a sniper rifle sounded almost simultaneously with a vorcha slumping to the floor minus its' head. Shepard made a quick glance to judge the angle. _ He's just playing now, that shot missed the edge of my barrier by less than a centimeter to clear Jacob too. These mercs really don't know how outclassed they are if he can still do that after as long as they've had him holed up. Of course, their odds are a lot worse now..._

Cafka turned out to be pulling double duty organizing the freelancers and attempting to fix the Mantis gunship Archangel had managed to disable. Shepard took advantage of the batarian's distraction to deal with kicking off the latest rush by grabbing a welder off a nearby crate and jamming it into his back, unleashing millions of volts through the unfortunate mercenary and spot welding him to the floor plating. Even if the Blue Suns decided to use the gunship at some point, it would not be up to par without a competent mechanic finishing the repairs. To further insure against its effective use, he took one of the incendiary grenades they had scavenged along the way and set it to remote detonate from his omni-tool, placing the oblong device as far inside the A-61's hull as he could reach from an access panel before closing it back up.

Signaling Jacob and Miranda to join him, Shepard rushed to catch up with the last freelancers to hop the barricade onto the bridge leading to Archangel's hideout cum fortress. The M-9 Tempest in his hand spat hyper-velocity metal into the back of the nearest freelancer before his boots even touched the ground, with Miranda's heavy Carnifex barking and Jacob's favored Eviscerator booming into the backs of others. Someone further along the bridge realized that the supposedly secure rear was not so safe, and shouted a warning to the others. One or two simply dropped their weapons and ducked behind whatever cover was available, but others spun around in time to die facing the trio that shot them, or to receive a high-angle shot to the head from Archangel. As Jacob grabbed a group with his biotics, Miranda sent a warp their way and the two biotic fields reacted violently, tossing bodies in all directions and knocking some off the edge of the bridge. Shepard tossed the other incendiary grenade he had found, and several beings came shrieking from the sudden firestorm, plummeting to their deaths rather than be burned alive. The way now cleared, he charged into the lower level of the base.

A man was kneeling just inside the entryway next to a cylindrical device, but a sharp bark from the hand cannon carried by the surprisingly quick Lawson signaled the end of his ability to do anything with it. Two more were running towards the flight of stairs on the far side of the great room on the first floor of the compound, and were easily dispatched by a cluster of razor-edged shards from Jacob's shotgun. At the top of the stairs, a fourth mercenary helpfully pointed out where Archangel was by attempting to cut through a locked door with a portable welding kit. Shepard relieved him of the attempt by reaching over his shoulder and grabbing his wrist, directing the cutting torch into the man's faceplate. Stepping over the now smoking body, he rapped armored knuckles against the door and waited. The latch turned green to signal that it was unlocked, and the trio stepped into the sniper's perch. The armored back presented to them did little to indicate an identity aside from belonging to a turian, but questions were forestalled by an upraised hand gesturing to wait silently. A heavy crack and a sodden thump later the turian in question stood up and turned around, coming face-plate to face-plate with him at last. Both men tilted their heads at the same time as if waiting for the other to remove their helmet first, then simultaneously dipped their heads forward to pull off their respective coverings.

ME/T

The firestorm created by the exploding gunship quickly consumed the hangar building, although some of the Blood Pack vorcha managed to stumble clear while their brethren burned. A solitary krogan roared in rage and charged out of the flames, armor melted or still on fire, charred flesh flaking off with every step towards the barricade. Two sniper rifles sounded almost as one over the roaring flames, stopping the creature cold as its' central nervous system lost a huge portion of the controlling organ. A late arriving concussion shot merely knocked the still-standing corpse to the ground.

Having watched the two YMIRs tear almost all of his men apart Jarel called up a final sequence on his omnitool and ducked back into an alcove. A metronome steady set of footsteps sounded off of the walls and plating of the boulevard, and the last mech in the Eclipse inventory rounded the corner weapon muzzle first. The multiple heavy barrels suggested a rather messy way to die was attached to the source of the heavy steps. The machine was almost as tall as the YMIR mechs, but obviously of a much older design, mounting only a single gun and not using the heavy plate armor installed on the newer models. Jacob was the first to recognize the unit.

"That's a Cyberdyne T-70 Shepard, we need to stop it quick!"

One glance was enough to confirm that the unit had been upgraded significantly, mainly with a large reserve ammunition tank mounted on the back and new metal overlays covering formerly vulnerable locations. As the ancient battle bot cleared the final barrier it raised its right arm and the whine of a heavy electric motor spooling up was distinguishable over the firing of the newer models. The two YMIRs were finishing up with the last few Eclipse mercs in view when it opened fire. In an age of mass-accelerator weaponry, the racket generated by the General Electric 20mm chain-gun was deafening. The first modern mech twitched once as the remains of its' kinetic barrier absorbed the impact of the first slugs, then was literally bowled over by the transfer of momentum from the remainder of the burst. The second launched a rocket at the new threat before a hail of depleted uranium slugs chewed it to scrap metal. The anti-armor rocket missed its intended target and exploded against the wall of a distant warehouse, doing nothing to disturb a robot built for battlefield use.

The war machine stood on the bridge and seemed to spin down, as if it could not find any more targets. Jarel quickly ordered his remaining soldiers to follow him across in an attempt to kill Archangel, running towards the hideout as quickly as he could. Unfortunately for him, the motion triggered the simplistic threat-response programming in the T-70 and the machine spun to face him. The salarian was hit in the gut with the back side of a metal hand moving with enough force to toss an air-car, catapulting him off the side of the bridge. He wouldn't be alive to be concerned about the landing, between the pulped organs and the snapped neck the former mercenary leader was quite dead before he reached the edge of the structure.

Unfortunately for Shepard and co, as they moved to watch the salarian, one of them moved just far enough to register in the machine's threat detection. Again the weapon on its arm spooled up, and because it could not properly localize its target, the weapon was sent traversing across the general area. Chunks of wall suddenly turned to dust as the heavy slugs impacted, and the team cursed and fell further back from their former positions.

Shouting to be heard over the racket, Miranda reminded Shepard of the bomb on the first floor. A plan was quick to form, and he relayed it to the others as best he could over the deafening roar of the chain-gun outside. Jacob crouched low and moved out of the room with Shepard while Miranda prepared to support Garrus with her biotics. Fortunately, the bomb was located out of sight from the war-bot hampering their escape, but in order to employ it, they were going to have to move into the open. At the signal that the bomb was armed and ready, the duo on the second floor spread as far apart as possible and popped up to fire at the machine on the bridge. The idea was to present widely spaced threats and force the thing's programming to choose one over the other, yet still distract it from Shepard and Jacob on the same level while they tossed the explosive at it. The distraction worked, the stream of heavy slugs remained focused on the second floor as Shepard tossed the bomb directly at the bot and Jacob focused a pull field on the legs of the machine. The sudden loss of support did not seem to affect the aim of the T-70 in the least, but the sudden explosion of a bomb designed to take down a building was enough to scatter what was left of the machine across a good portion of the district, ending the threat rather permanently.

"Shepard, better get up here quick, Garrus took a bad hit when he tried to shift positions."

Calling for pickup as he ran up the stairs, Shepard rounded the corner to see that Lawson had understated things just a bit. Blue blood was splattered liberally around the prone form of his turian friend, and the lower portion of his left arm was laying on the ground a good meter from the rest of him. From the look of the shattered armor and tattered flesh, there was no chance to reattach the limb even if medical help was immediate. Fortunately, the onboard combat medical program in the armor treated the injury exactly as it was supposed to, and clamped down immediately on the severed limb with the section seals designed to hold internal atmosphere in hostile environments. The tourniquet effect was enough to keep Garrus from bleeding out immediately, but the seals could do nothing for the wound he had taken to the face. Miranda already had retrieved some of the bedding from the nearby bunkroom and was using it as a makeshift pressure bandage to try to stem the blood flow. Medigel could only do so much when it never made contact with the actual wound due to fluid in the way, so getting the bleeding controlled was critical. The excess medigel packs they had picked up were quickly being consumed in an attempt to increase the clotting factor of blood being pumped by a heart still in overdrive from the turian equivalent of adrenaline and too many combat stims.

ME/T

"The doc corrected as best she could with emergency surgery and some cybernetics, but there is no way to tell when he'll be back 100%."

The hissing of the conference room door interrupted Jacob's report on Garrus' condition as said turian walked in. The heavy medical pad covering the lower portion of his face belied the true extent of the injury beneath, only the broken collar of the armor he still wore indicating what was very nearly a fatal hit. As for his left arm, a skeletal prosthetic was evidence enough of the damage an antique and "obsolete" weapons system was capable of dealing even against military grade kinetic barriers, armor, and flesh.

"Tough son of a bitch. I'll let you two talk."

Jacob turned and left for his station in the armory, leaving the old comrades in arms to their discussion.

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**A/N: If someone wants to do a pic for this fic I would welcome it. PM me here or on my deviantArt if you have one. I'd do it but my art skills are utter crap, to the point where stick people cry in pity.**


	8. Chapter 7

**Oddly enough, this chapter came much easier than the last one. Maybe I just have more fun writing certain characters.**

* * *

Jack was almost there. Only a few more useless guards stood between her and her ticket off the prison ship. The batarian made a satisfying crunch against the bulkhead, knocking his turian counterpart off the walkway before he could fire his rifle. The impressions gained from brief glimpses of the ship docked outside the viewport were confirmed when she took her first unobstructed look in the breathing room this allowed her. It also allowed her to notice the symbol painted on a forward sensor fin, one that she was unlikely to ever forget. "Cerberus! FUCK!"

She could still have the ship if she wanted it, but she didn't know how to operate it, and to take it would mean more fighting. She was already starting to feel the drain of using her biotics on an empty stomach. As she was pacing back and forth thinking over what to do, the turian guard pulled himself back onto the walkway. He had lost his rifle, but still had a combat knife, so he drew it and prepared to stab the deranged biotic when she got close enough. Jack turned to make another lap pacing and saw the boots in front of her, looked up to see the turian's face as he wound up to swing his knife. Reflexively calling up her biotics, she began a mnemonic to push him away when his head exploded, painting the wall behind with blue blood and bits of brain matter. A split second later she heard the heavy whip-crack of a sniper rifle behind her, and she spun around to face the new threat. Her peripheral vision picked up on movement very close by as she was turning, and she swung her fist in reaction, intending to deal a biotically enhanced punch to whoever had invaded her personal space.

Flesh, bone, and biotics met an armored palm and stopped dead; something that she couldn't understand, she had used the same technique to blast through the armor on a YMIR mech in the cryo cell, and numerous metal bulkheads between the cell blocks, this had stopped her like a bug on an aircar's windshield. As her mind caught up to this, Jack found herself face to chest-plate with a black armored mass that was just rippling into view. Still stunned, she slowly craned her neck till she could see the visor that seemed locked on to her eyes, and actually flinched when the thing spoke. "Don't try it."

Now panicked, she reacted on instinct and drove a knee upwards, only to smash her kneecap on the armor plated leg directly in it's path. This pain was nothing compared to what came next, as the hand holding her fist abruptly clamped down and twisted, torquing her arm out of the socket and spinning her to a slamming stop against the metal grating of the walkway. The sharp edged knee firmly planted between her shoulder blades combined with the grip on her now useless arm ensured she wouldn't go anywhere quickly. Out of the corner of her eye she saw turian boots and a pair of salarian feet in what looked like hiking boots walking up towards her still unidentified captor. She flinched again when the modulated voice came out just above her ear "Can you behave like a human being now or do I have to treat you like an animal?" She growled low in her throat before she remembered why she was on the floor, and was instantly rewarded with blinding pain as her hand was bent backwards over her arm.

"Fuuck! Ok, ok, I get it!" Gasping to get air back into her lungs, she felt cold fingers run over her back before grasping the strap that ran around her chest as the knee was removed. Suddenly she was lifted into the air and set on her feet, finally getting a good look at the person who had so effectively neutralized her. From what she could see, the matte black armor covering the being concealed any hints of identity, but only humans and batarians were shaped to wear it. Since the trio in front of her were not wearing Blue Suns armor, they must have come from the Cerberus ship, which suggested that it was in fact human.

Now that her blind rage had dimmed and the pain of her recent encounter had broken her concentration for biotics Jack actually had to take a step back and think about her situation. Previously ignored noises from the background came into focus as VI driven warnings and damage alerts essentially stating that Purgatory was falling apart in a cascade reaction. Chances were good there was no way she could make it to any escape pods or the main hangar before a hull breach and hard vacuum accomplished what so many (now dead) people had failed to do to her. That meant her best bet for escape lay at the end of the docking tunnel by the view port. Unfortunately, that was only escaping certain death just to jump back into the hands of her longtime tormenters if she wasn't smart about how she did it. The group in front of her (coincidentally between herself and the docking tunnel) was obviously not going to give her a whole lot of time to think up a plan though, so she was going to have to resort to her normal make-it-up-as-you-go-along methodology. They weren't shooting at her yet, which meant they had something worse in mind for her. It also meant they were either a lot smarter or a lot stupider than anyone else she had run into since waking up from cryo, and since they had already proven that at least the big human could stop her cold without killing her anytime he wanted she was betting on smarter.

Given the odd mix of species, they had to be mercs of some sort, even if they had come from a vessel with Cerberus markings. No way was that human-supremacist group of utter bastards going to let non-humans play any major role in their operations if they could avoid it, but given the damage she had done to them in the past, they might have hired on expendable mercs to wear her out before their definitely human operatives came in to seal the deal. The other alternative was they were mercs that had caught the Cerberus crew in dock and simply stolen the ship, but then why not re-paint the damn thing? Coming to bust her out didn't seem like a move any merc group she knew of would make either, she had cost too many of them too many people to do something like that. Maybe they were mercs looking to get revenge on Cerberus for something? In that case it would make a bit more sense, and she would definitely help out, but not for free. That was one of the rules to live by in the Terminus Systems, never do anything for free, always make sure you get something back. They wanted her for something, that much was for sure, time to see what and if she could make sure to get the better end of the deal.

"What the hell do you want?"

Not the most diplomatic greeting, but then again, what use did she have for diplomacy? Her point got across. No point wasting time on useless frills to make some idiot feel better about themselves. The salarian looked like he was about to speak up when the same voice from before cut across whatever he was about to say.

"To get you the hell off this scrap heap for starters. After that, we can figure things out when decompression isn't a major concern."

She had to admit it, the big guy had a point, but she wasn't just going to go along with no advantage of her own.

"You come here on a Cerberus ship and expect me to just believe you like that?"

The body language of the turian tightened up in preparation for a fight, and the salarian, who seemed a fairly cool customer with some experience based on the scars and broken horn, even took a half step back. These reactions she could read easily based on long experience where it was the only warning she got. The human in front didn't move a muscle as far as she could tell, although there could have been a raised eyebrow behind that smoked black visor.

"I have a ride off this pile of shit, hell, I'm even offering you a place on it, and you want to argue with me? I don't need your help that badly. Mordin, Garrus, get back to the ship while Jack and I settle something."

The two in the back immediately peeled off and scurried through the hatch. This surprised Jack just enough that she didn't try to attack or run away. Most people that tried to deal with her one-on-one were stupid and overconfident, but she wasn't getting that impression from this one. Normally she got the feeling she was at least intimidating to the people around her, either from the tats she made sure to display or from her biotics and general sunny disposition. The man in front of her didn't seem to care in the least about any of that. In fact, he was walking over to the view port beside her. There was a veritable arsenal attached to his armor, and every one of those weapons was worlds above the normal available in the Terminus Systems. They were also all racked on their magnetic holsters, he didn't even have a pistol drawn. Throwing her off balance even further, he actually turned his back on her and looked out at the ship docked just outside, almost as if he was ignoring her. The VI was still droning on in the background, warning her there really wasn't that much time to think about her options.

"Hey, what the fuck? You're ignoring me now? Do you want me to-"

Jack cut off as she turned towards him and he just wasn't there. It wasn't the optical cloak that she had seen earlier, she knew she could have at least noticed the movement as the background went out of focus around the edges. Her instincts were all screaming at her, with the fine hairs on the back of her neck quivering. Remembering what happened the last time she tried a blind swing, she stayed still, even when the modulated voice spoke from just over her left shoulder.

"You really think I was ignoring a mass murderer? I know your record Jack. You are a predator with no natural prey. Unfortunately for your little worldview, you are no longer peak predator. There are things in this universe which would make you piss your pants in fear if you were to meet them or truly comprehend them."

He moved smoothly over to the view port again, placing his back against the wall to face her. She was about to respond when he spoke up again.

"But you won't get the chance to meet them unless you are smart enough to make it worth my trouble to come get you. Tell me, how are you at breathing vacuum?"

"How good is anyone? What are you gonna do, space me?"

"Nope, I'm going to space both of us."

With that, the big man smashed his fist into the view port. The composites used in constructing what was essentially transparent hull plating were designed to withstand hits from micrometeorites moving at thousands of kilometers per hour in the off chance that kinetic barriers failed, and the crystal-clear assembly was almost a meter thick. The impact of his armored fist shouldn't have done more than give off a hollow thunk as it bounced off, but in this case a loud crack was heard as the first layer of the laminate construction crazed in a spiderweb pattern. That would have been impressive enough, but then the seals mounting the port to the hull plates around it gave way, and the whole thing blew out in a rush of atmosphere. Standing in the middle of the hallway with nothing to anchor against, Jack was picked up and pulled along by the escaping pressure. She barely had time to take a deep breath before the man jumped straight at her and slammed into her side, promptly forcing that breath right back out. The last thing she saw before everything went black was the side of the Cerberus ship coming up fast.

_Fuckers are gonna kill me after all._

ME/T

"So Shepard, is this a habit for you now, jumping out of exploding spaceships? Was it not enough to just blow the place up, you had to go for extra style points with a bad-ass exit?"

"Joker, just make sure no escape pods or shuttles get away from that place, I need to take our newest bit of insanity down to Dr. Chakwas to get checked out."

"Ok Shepard, powering up GUARDIAN system now to pick em off. By the way, the Illusive Man is on the line for you."

"Tell him I'm dealing with that asshole Kuril"s stupidity right now, I'll talk to him as soon as I finish the debrief for the ground team."

"Roger, you're too busy to deal with momma hen. Or is that poppa badger? He's viscous enough to be a badger..."

The rest of Joker's little rambling was lost in the background hum of the CIC as Shepard carted the unconscious biotic towards the elevator. It bothered him to be in space like that again, nothing but armor protecting him from the vacuum, but he knew ahead of time it would only be for a brief time if they had to resort to that method of extraction. When he had told Garrus he 'had to settle something' with Jack the turian had rushed back to the ship and had Joker pull away from the docking tunnel and position the airlock to intercept a Shepard sized package. Truth be told, he was more worried about the tattooed young woman in his arms than for himself. She had been exposed to hard vacuum for a good twenty seconds after they cleared the debris of the view port while they crossed the space to the Normandy airlock, then a further fifteen seconds of waiting for the airlock to pressurize once inside. Despite the rush of atmosphere through the hull breach on Purgatory, they had not been moving all that fast when the open hatch had scooped them up like a net, and while his air was fine, the only thing he could do for her was support her weight when they crossed into the Normandy's gravity field. Now he was hoping Chakwas would be able to treat her for the moderate to severe case of decompression sickness he had just inflicted on the poor girl.

The other thing that concerned him was an incident back on Purgatory shortly after he had released Jack from Cryo. The team had been fighting through one of the cell blocks and came up against a YMIR mech supported by some Blue Suns and several FENRIS mechs. He had lost his shields advancing to a new piece of cover and lost track of one of the varren sized mechs, which promptly shocked him with its snout-mounted weapon. On a normal unshielded opponent that would have been enough to drop them to the ground, but Shepard didn't drop.

_The damn YMIR is still hosing my position with its auto cannon, gotta be a way around that somehow. Think damn it, maybe if I flank around... FUCK where did that FENRIS come from? My vision goes red like on Noveria, then I am simply a passenger in my own body as that something _else _takes over again. I watch my right arm drop and grab the front leg of the mech next to me, hoisting the machine into the air and throwing it at the YMIR. Then one of the Blue Suns that was obviously directing the dog-mech pops around the corner of the grounded cell to the right. He isn't far enough away, and I watch as my legs sprint towards him, my arm lashes out and catches him in the throat. The turian in my hand is a good bit taller than me, and probably weighs about 130 kilos in his armor, but I don't even feel any strain holding him off the ground with one hand. He makes a good meat shield though as whatever is controlling me runs into the flank of his buddies, pulling his own shotgun with my other hand and firing it into them as I run. The mech I threw earlier seems to have exploded in exactly the right (or wrong, depending on viewpoint) place and stripped the shields from the YMIR, and Garrus takes its head off with a single shot. The meat shield in my hand disintegrates when the power plant in the big mech explodes, but my shields have recharged and hold back what leaks past. With nothing left to fight, the red fades away again._

Luckily, Garrus had been distracted when it happened and Dr. Solus, while observant enough to notice, didn't know him well enough to say anything about it. The turian meat shield he probably could have attributed to adrenaline, but tossing a FENRIS was no easy feat. The damn mech probably weighed close to two hundred kilos and he had tossed it halfway across the cell block like a paint can. It wasn't biotics augmenting his strength, there was no telltale blue ripple around either himself or the mech, so logically the strength was already present within his body to perform such a feat. It could have been something Cerberus did when they brought him back, but how would that account for the episodes before he got spaced? Maybe when he got to the med-bay he could have Chakwas scan him so she could tell him what was going on.

Fortunately during his ruminations the elevator had arrived and he was almost to the crew deck when his thought process returned to the present. Jack was still cradled in his arms like a small child, which was not very difficult to imagine while she was unconscious, as she barely topped 1.5 meters in boots and maybe weighed in at 45 kilos soaking wet and carrying a few pavers. Her face was relaxed from the snarl on Purgatory, and given some hair on her head would have been rather attractive by most human standards. The motion sensor on the door to med bay recognized his approach and obediently opened up so he could walk through unimpeded. Dr. Chakwas turned at the sound and saw him still in armor with the young woman in his arms, and hurried to direct him towards a medical bed.

"What did you do this time Commander?"

Shepard always liked Chakwas, she managed to come across as the classy aunt figure everyone wished they had, but was always ready with an incredibly crass joke if she thought the situation needed lightening up.

"Took a quick spacewalk, forgot to get her a mask beforehand. She probably passed out when I tackled her. Might want to strap her down and get an inhibitor on her amp though, she can get pretty violent."

"Do you always have to meet attractive young ladies in combat situations Commander, or is it just the ones you like?"

"Har har Doc, just make sure this one lives long enough for me to talk to again ok? I'm going to get out of this armor and I'll be right back."

ME/T

_Coming to always sucks when it means you feel the headache._

Before she even opened her eyes, Jack knew this would be a shitty day. Her head felt like a couple elcor had been tap dancing on it, and her ribs felt like there was a krogan sitting on her chest. She couldn't hear much, but the smell of antiseptic and steel told her she was in a medical bay of some sort. For obvious reasons that was not one of her very favorite places in the galaxy, and her first instinct was to get out as fast as she could. Attempting to roll to the side and off the bed told her something else, she was restrained by several heavy straps and not going anywhere quickly. It also alerted the other occupants of the room that she was awake.

"Well, it seems I was wrong about how long your latest addition would be unconscious Commander."

That voice was definitely human, sounded like an older one too. She still wasn't going to give them the satisfaction that she acknowledged them.

"Aww Doc, that's just too bad, she's like a pixie when she sleeps, all cute and sparkly like!"

She couldn't tell for sure, but that sounded like an intercom transmission.

"Joker, you wouldn't be saying that if you were actually in here."

And that voice she recognized. It was a bit cleaner without a helmet in the way, but it was also the last one she had heard before passing out. Passing out when the crazy fucker had managed to bust out the view port right next to himself and space them both. No wonder her head felt like it did, she'd been sucking vacuum for who knows how long. Obviously, she was on whatever ship had recovered them, and the only one that she knew to be in the area to pick them up was flying Cerberus colors. Shit, that meant they had really wanted her alive for something to put resources into treating her for decompression. Time to see what the fuckers were gonna try to get out of her this time.

"What the hell do you people want with me?"

She was trying to be polite, if for no other reason than it tended to throw people off when you didn't match their expectations. Jack didn't really expect it to work, but she would try every thing she could to throw these people off the truth for as long as possible. Hell, it might even get them to feel sorry for her and let her loose. It would be a huge mistake on their part, but not one they would be likely to make twice assuming she let them live.

"I just want to know the answer to one question, but before I ask it I will have to explain the situation first so you can decide how to answer."

"The answer is fuck you."

"Not really the answer I was looking for, but I guess you like impromptu spacewalks with no oxygen. Fine by me, we can just dump you out the airlock while in FTL still strapped to that bunk."

Shit, this guy actually meant business. If that was his opening negotiation he probably even meant what he said back on Purgatory about not needing her. But he worked for Cerberus, or at least was on their ship, which was the same thing, so he couldn't really be that willing to just space her, could he? Jack knew what her bounty was when she got caught the last time, and Cerberus wouldn't have paid it up or sent someone to bust her out just to kill her, those assholes always wanted to use her somehow. Still, it would majorly suck if he carried through on what he said.

"Fine, I'll listen to your little sales pitch."

"Hmm, so you can be reasonable, it just takes an unavoidable threat to your existence. Here's the deal: My team and I are on what is being called a suicide mission against the Collectors, so I need the best fighters I can get helping me out. From what I saw on Purgatory, you are damned good at fighting, and my ugh, I can't really believe I'm saying this, 'benefactor' has already told me to try to make use of that. I know your background with Cerberus, now here is mine so you know how I feel about my situation."

"Cerberus wiped out my unit and damn near killed me on Akuze. They did it again to another unit a few years later, and I was the first one to respond to the 'distress beacon' used to set the trap. After making the connection between that and a colony getting turned into husks because the sick fucks decided they wanted to see how it happened, I dedicated my available time around hunting Saren to stopping Cerberus wherever I found them. My body count on Cerberus scientists and troopers is somewhere in the high triple digits, with at least nine of their operations shut down by myself and my squad. The dumb fuckers decided to bring me back from the brink of death to do what they couldn't without things blowing up in their face like every other operation they have ever run. Now I am using their ship and resources to fight the Collectors, but I have a couple Cerberus assigned watchdogs I can't seem to shake. I figure the more non-Cerberus people I can get to help me out, the better chances I have of really hurting the bastards when I don't have any more use for them."

The guy sounded like he actually believed what he was spouting at her, but she needed to make sure he really intended to hurt what had hurt her.

"Say I believed half of that crap you just spouted at me. What makes it worth my while to help your sorry ass out?"

"Two things. The first is that this is a Cerberus built ship with all sorts of fun data on Cerberus operational protocols and safe houses scattered around the galaxy. The second is that you get paid to fuck shit up. Don't make any mistakes, it is coming out of Cerberus accounts, but I have direct control over 'appropriate compensation.' So how much do you think I can get away with paying you before they notice I hacked a few of their larger accounts?"

Well, that was a hell of an offer. Most people would jump on the credits, but to her that was just a side offer she barely even considered. The real value was the data he was offering.

"You said something about data? You want my help, I want a copy of every file Cerberus has in their database about me."

"I'll give you full access. One of the Cerberus watchdogs likes to stylize herself as the XO of the ship, if she gives you any trouble about it let me know."

"You better be straight up with me."

"EDI, classification change. Jack is now a member of my ground team, part of her specified compensation is full access to the databanks on this vessel. She is to be afforded access using my authorization code. Changes effective immediately."

"Understood Shepard. Classification updated. Welcome aboard Jack. Database access is available through any of my terminals throughout the ship, you may also make limited use copies of individual files to data pads aboard ship."

Well damn, this Shepard guy followed through after all. Most tried to bullshit her until they got what they wanted out of her, but then again most people didn't willingly space themselves just to knock her out.

"Shepard, right? You are crazy as hell, anyone ever tell you that?"

The guy finally walked into her field of view with a smirk on his face.

"That is probably the first time someone has said that to me and made it sound like a compliment."

Goddamn, he was impressive even out of armor. Tall, well muscled, fairly handsome face, the guy could be a fucking holo star if he wanted. Probably be pretty good in the sack too, if she wanted to try for it. Yes indeed, there could be benefits to working with him as long as he wasn't a total ass. Then he leaned in closer and that indescribable feeling hit her, this man was dangerous as hell. Jack felt a shiver run up her spine, and reveled in the feel of it. It was one predator recognizing another predator, and it would be a hell of an interesting time finding out which one was paramount.

"Now that you're on the team, I guess I can undo those straps holding you down. If you promise not to blow any holes in the ship I'll get the doc to turn off that biotic inhibitor too."

Due to the strap holding her head down, Jack couldn't nod, but he must have seen her assent somehow because he simply grunted a bit and then undid the strap over her right wrist and backed away. Good to know he was smart enough to recognize she didn't want more help than that.

"I'll find my own place to stay, I don't like a lot of through traffic, so keep your people off of me Shepard."

"Fine by me. Just show up when I call for you alright?"

"I'm not some dog you call asshole!"

"Jack, if I have to call you for something, it means you get to kill things. Other than that, I plan on leaving you the hell alone."

"Fine, now fuck off!"

* * *

**A/N: I tried to keep Jack in character, hopefully I didn't mess it up too bad. Shepard is going to be expanding her horizons a bit in the future. Next up, Okeer gets a visitor he actually likes.**


End file.
